The Improvement Era

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WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS, PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

AFTER THE STORMS

Lo, in the East once more the risen sun
Bathes the wide landscape in a golden light;
In calm and richness is this day begun,
And ends the storm and tumult of the night.
The lightnings cleft the dark in lurid streams,
And thunders echoed from the wind-swept cloud,
The troubled night was like a night of dreams
When life with death is wrapped within a shroud.
Yes, dread that storm which swept the darkened skies,
That filled the night with sounds of driven rain,
And still remembrance in my being lies,
To voice a heart-storm — lost love's stress and pain:

Now lifts the sun, the night's wild tumults cease;

Unto my soul there comes this hour of peace.

ALFRED LAMBOURNE

The Meeting of the Waters

Shoshone River from Big Butte, Idaho
Photo by Joseph Shanks

After the meeting of the waters, those from the Henry
Lake, in the Yellowstone National Park, those from the
Tetons, the Snake River, — the Shoshone — moves westward
through deep gorges in the lava plains and makes its ter-
rific plunge at the Twin and the Shoshone Falls, to later
mingle with the Columbia and pass at Tillamook Rock
Light, into the Pacific — the western main.

In our picture the Tetons are seen above the foothills,
thrusting their sharp summits into the skies, and white
with the first autumnal snow. The Tetons— so they were
named by the French trappers. A Greek would most
likely have called them the Titans, a Scandinavian or Ger-
man, the Yotuns or the Giants. Whatever we may call
them, the Tetons are the most savage mountains of the In-
terior Western Land.

A. L.

IMPROVEMENT ERA

Vol. XXV NOVEMBER, 1921 No. 1

The "Mormons" and the United States

Flag

By B. H. Roberts, of the First Council of Seventy

If respect and honor for the flag of one's country tends to
establish loyalty to that country, then the "Mormons" have a
strong claim to loyalty, by the evidence of such respect and
honor for the flag. Even in the last months of their stay in the
city of Nauvoo, and with every certainty that in the spring of
1846 they would be driven from their homes and expatriated
from their country, the flag of the United States continued to
wave from the tower of the Nauvoo temple. This flag belonged
personally to President Brigham Young, and was brought by
him to Utah. It is likely also that this was the flag under which
the Mormon Battalion was mustered into service, at Council
Bluffs, in July, 1846. Colonel Kane, who was present during
the mustering in of the Battalion, says, "An American flag was
brought out from the store-house of things rescued [i. e. from the
debacle at Nauvoo] and hoisted to a tree mast — and in three
days the force was reported, mustered, organized and ready to
march." It may also have been this flag which, before the close
of the year 1847, was raised within the fort erected on the pres-
ent site of Salt Lake City, which event the late "Mormon"
poetess, Eliza R. Snow, celebrated in her "Ode to the Flag." She
arrived in Salt Lake City with one of the first companies fol-
lowing the Pioneers, and entered Salt Lake Valley in September
or October. "Soon after our arrival in the valley," she writes,
"a tall liberty pole was erected, (planted in Mexican soil) and
from its summit the Stars and Stripes seemed to float
with even more significance, if possible, than they were wont
to do on eastern breezes." Then in her Biography follows the

4 IMPROVEMENT ERA

"Ode to the Flag," though doubtless the Ode was not written
until some years later, probably 1865 :

"I love that flag! When in my childish glee —
A prattling girl, upon my grandsire's knee —
I heard him tell strange tales, with valor rife,
How that same flag was bought with blood and life.

"And his tall form seemed taller when he said,
'Child, for that flag thy grandsire fought and bled!
My young heart felt that every scar he wore,
Caused him to prize that banner more and more.

"I caught the fire, and as in years I grew,
I loved the flag; I loved my country, too.

# * # * # * * * * *

"There came a time that I remember well —
Beneath the Stars and Stripes we could not dwell!
We had to flee; but in our hasty flight
We grasped the flag with more than mortal might;

"And vowed, although our foes should us bereave
Of all things else, the flag we would not leave.
We took the flag; and journeying to the West,
We wore its motto graven on each breast."

"Well do I know the spot," said William H. Hooper, Utah's
delegate to Congress, "where the first liberty pole was raised,
and from the top of which floated the Stars and Stripes, while
yet the country was known as Mexican territory." (Speech
against the Ashley Bill to dismember the territory of Utah,
House of Representatives, Congressional Globe, February 25,
1869.)

On the occasion of the first celebration of the anniversary of
the entrance of the Pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, held July 24,
1849, we get another glimpse of President Young's flag and the
authority for identifying it with the flag that waved from the
tower of the Nauvoo temple, and probably the one under which
the Mormon Battalion was mustered into the United States
service. Under date of July 23, 1849, the Journal History of
President Young (Ms.) tells of the preparation being made
for the celebration of the entrance of the Pioneers into Salt Lake
valley, in the course of which he says: "Captain Tyler and the
artillerist were busy in the office making cartridges for the
cannon. In the evening my flag that used to fly from the Nauvoo
temple was hoisted at the east side of the bowery." From which
circumstances we know that the United States flag was brought
with the Pioneers from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City. In his History
Journal for the next day, July 24, the President also says: "At
half past seven (a. m.) a large national flag measuring sixty-
five feet in length was unfurled at the top of the liberty pole,
which is one hundred feet high, and was saluted with the firing

THE "MORMONS" AND THE UNITED STATES FLAG 5

of six guns, the ringing of the Nauvoo bell and spirit-stirring airs
from the band. (History of President Young, Ms., dates July
23 and 24, 1849.) These circumstances connected with the de-
parture of the Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo to Salt Lake val-
ley, clearly establish their respect and loyalty to the flag of their
country. For, from these early days until now, that flag has
been honored in Utah.

There has been one error promulgated in respect to the
United States flag and "Mormon" history that I think, for the
sake of accuracy in our history, ought to be corrected. This is
the quite generally accepted idea or "understanding" that on
the 26th day of July, when what is now called "Ensign Peak"
was first visited by President Young and a group of Pioneers,
they there and then raised a United States flag and named the
mount "Ensign Peak." There is no evidence that they raised any
flag on that mount at that time, or that they at all referred to the
flag of the United States, when speaking of an "Ensign" in rela-
tion to that "hill" in the side of the mountain. They were merely
out exploring the Salt Lake valley northward, and extended
their short journey as far as the Hot Springs, during which they
climbed the hill we now call "Ensign Peak." Had such an event
as raising the United States flag taken place at that time, it cer-
tainly would have been recorded in the journal of some of the
men present. Brigham Young gave the mountain its name, and
makes an entry of that fact in his journal, but says nothing of
any flag incident. Neither does Wilford Woodruff, who was
given to recording details in his journal, and who relates the
incident of naming "Ensign Peak" at length. The following is
the complete entry upon the subject in Elder Woodruff's
journal :

"Monday, July 26, 1847. We went north of the camp about five miles,
and we all went on to the top of a high peak in the edge of the mountain,
which we considered a good place to raise an ensign. So we named it
'Ensign Peak,' or 'Hill.' I was the first person that ascended this hill, which
we had thus named. Brother Young was very weary in climbing to the
peak, he being feeble [had not yet recovered from effects of mountain
fever.] We then descended to the flat, and started north to visit some hot
sulphur springs."

The "Ensign" that these Latter-day Saint Pioneers had
in mind, and of which they had frequently spoken enroute, was
something larger and greater than any national flag whatsoever;
and what it was meant to represent was greater than any earthly
kingdom's interest, and I speak not slightingly of earthly king-
doms either; but this "Ensign," in the minds of the "Mormon"
Pioneers concerned not one nation, but all nations ; not one epoch
or age, but all epochs and all ages; not nationality, but humanity.
It was to be the sign and ensign of the Empire of Christ, it was

6 IMPROVEMENT ERA

a prophecy of the time to come when "the kingdoms of this
world would become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ;
and when he shall reign forever and forever." (Revelations 11:
15.)

On the occasion of calling the pioneers' camp together for
reproof and instruction while yet on the Platte river, on the 29th
day of May, President Young referred to this "Standard of Zion."
Wilford Woodruff, after relating how the President addressed
himself to the few non-members of the Church present in the
camp, and how they would be protected in their rights — but they
must not introduce wickedness into the camp, "for it would not
be suffered" — said:

"He then spoke of the 'Standard' or 'Ensign' that would be reared in
Zion to govern the kingdom of God, and the nations of the earth, for
every nation would bow the knee and every tongue confess that Jesus was
the Christ; and this will be the Standard — 'The Kingdom of God and his
Law.' * * * And on the Standard would be a flag of every nation
under heaven, so there would be an invitation to all nations under heaven
to come unto Zion."

This was the significance of naming Ensign Peak, on that
26th day of July, 1847. It was the gathering of Israel out of all
nations to the Standard of Zion that the Pioneers were thinking
of, as is evidenced by many subsequent sermons in which the
texts were: Revelation 11:15; also Daniel 2 and 7.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and all na-
tions shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and
let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

"And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand
the second time to recover the remnant of his people. * * * And he
shall set up an Ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of
Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of
the earth.

"All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye,
when he lifteth up an Ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a
trumpet, hear ye."

These and other texts from Isaiah were woven into a dis-
course by Orson Pratt the Sunday following, viz., August 1, 1847.
(Woodruffs Journal, entry August 1.)

Later this "Zion Ensign" idea inspired Parley P. Pratt's
muse in the following verses:

ZION'S STANDARD

Lo! the Gentile chain is broken; See, on younder distant mountain,

Freedom's banner waves on high; Zion's standard wide unfurled,

List, ye nations! by this token Far above Missouri's fountain,

Know that your redemption's nigh. Lo ! it waves for all the world.

THE "MORMONS" AND THE UNITED STATES FLAG 7

Freedom, peace and full salvation Come, ye sons of doubt and wonder,
Are the blessings guaranteed — Indian, Moslem, Greek or Jew;

Liberty to every nation, All your shackles burst asunder;
Every tongue, and every creed. Freedom's banner waves for you.

Come, ye Christian sects, and pagan, Cease to butcher one another,
Pope, and Protestant, and priest, Join the covenant of peace;

Worshipers of God or Dagon, Be to all a friend, a brother;

Come ye to fair freedom's feast. This will bring the world release.

Lo! the King! the great Messiah,

Prince of Peace, shall come to
reign;
Sound again, ye heavenly choir,

Peace on earth, good will to men.

This hymn to the Ensign or Standard of Zion was com-
posed before July 24, 1849, for it was sung with great unction at
the celebration of the second anniversary of the entrance of the
Pioneers into Salt Lake valley. (See History of Brigham Young,
Ms. entry for July 24, 1849.

The Psychology of Repentance

By Professor Enoch Jorgensen

Repentance is the discontinuance of any conduct under the
firm impression that it is displeasing in the sight of God. It
embodies the following psychological steps:

1. The person recognizes wrong, feels his own inadequacy,
begins to see what might have been.

2. He regrets his shortcomings and longs for the better
life.

3. He resolves to eschew evil and reaches out for the good.

4. His resolution has its fulfilment in reformation, in
discontinuance of former conduct.

5. The changed life makes him desirous to make restitu-
tion so far as possible, to even up, for he begins to recognize the
law of compensation. He repents. Truly he finds renewed life,
salvation.

Sandy, Utah

The Conquest of the Land of War

By J. M. Sjodahl

The following little bit of American history is, it seems to
me, appropriate reading on the eve of the convening of the
international congress in Washington, called in the interest
of the limitation of armaments and peaceful intercourse of na-
tions. It shows that the gospel of peace, when put to the prac-
tical test, is more powerful than the sword, in the battle of life.

The central figure in the story is Las Casas, a Dominican
friar, a Spaniard of noble extraction by birth, and one of the
most interesting characters among the pioneer discoverers and
explorers of the New World. He came to the island of Hispan-
iola with Ovando in 1502, and spent many years there and
on the continent then just beginning to emerge out of ob-
scurity. He labored incessantly against slavery and the op-
pression of the Indians, and succeeded in obtaining laws for
their protection. His literary productions are considered the
very foundation of American history, and he was in every re-
spect a remarkable man.

The Spanish conquerors, as is well known, believed in force
as the means of "converting" the natives. They held, in fact,
that the Americans, as "pagans" had no rights which the "Chris-
tians" were under obligation to respect. Many of the Spanish
pioneers came from a class of men that thought very
little of the value of a human life. To get plunder they mur-
dered without compunction, and the cruelties perpetrated in
Hispaniola, Mexico, Peru, etc., earned for the perpetrators an
evil reputation that spread far and wide. But, aside from this,
the spirit of the age was one of violence and cruelty. It was the
age of the Inquisition and the mistaken belief that pagans and
heretics ought to be tortured and slain for the glory of God,
unless they would join the church. Had not the great Augustine
said, "Compel them to come"? That was the spirit of the age.
There was no regard for the free agency of man. Liberty of
conscience was a principle not known, or at least meaningless.

In the year 1511, suddenly, a voice, strange but powerful
was heard in the wilderness. Father Montesino, in his church
at San Domingo, told the Spaniards that they were living in
mortal sin because of their greed and cruelty, and that they were
no nearer heaven than Moors and Turks. An awful heresy at

THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND OF WAR 9

that time! But he had seen a light and he followed it. He
continued to tell his hearers, in words that pierced them like
daggers, that eternal torment was awaiting them and that the
sacraments would he refused to any man who should engage
in the slave trade or maltreat the Indians.- Glory to the mem-
ory of Montesino!

Las Casas was converted.

Ajt first he saw the light but dimly, but he grew rapidly in
knowledge and comprehension, and in due time he recognized
the brotherhood of man, regardless of color. He then main-
tained that to make war upon infidels and pagans merely be-
cause of their religion is a sin, and that the only right and law-
ful way ©f bringing men to Christ is by reason and persuasion.
Las Casas, in advocating this doctrine at that time took his life
in his hands, and that he escaped the Inquisition is a marvel.
Scoffers were numerous. Let this impractical idealist, they
said, try to convert a tribe of Indians and make them keep
peace, and he will soon find that something more practical is
needed than words of love.

Las Casas took them at their word.

Just to the north of Guatemala and bordering upon Yuca-
tan there is a mountainous, almost inaccessible territory to
which had been given the name of "The Land of War." The
inhabitants were fierce fighters, savage and inhospitable. Three
times the Spaniards had tried to take that country, but each
time they had been defeated and driven back. Las Casas de-
cided to demonstrate the truth of his doctrine of the power
of love in that unpromising field.

Having obtained the necessary guarantees of non-inter-
ference by the Spanish authorities, Las Casas and his co-laborers
began to put their doctrine into verse in the Quiche language.
The story of the fall, redemption, the life of Christ, judgment,
etc., was told in simple, yet elegant composition, and the verses
were set to native music, to be chanted to the accompaniment
of Indian primitive instruments.

Next, four Indian traders were found. The affection of
these young men was gained, and they were taught to recite
and sing the poems. When the traders had been thoroughly
instructed, they were sent to the principal pueblo, or city, in
the Land of War, the Indian name of which was Tuzulutlan.
They carried with them ample supplies of mirrors, bells, knives,
and such things as they could use for barter.

Arrived at their destination, the four Indians traded with
the people as usual. In the evenings they gathered them to-
gether and, to the accompaniment of drums and timbrels,
chanted their sacred couplets. Day after day these entertain-

10 IMPROVEMENT ERA

merits were given. The people became interested. The traders
were beset with questions. And they explained that they had
learned their stories of holy men, who, though white, were dif-
ferent from the Spaniards. They drew pictures of the monks.
The result was that the chief sent a friend to Guatemala to in-
vestigate, and to invite the holy men to visit Tuzulutlan if the
investigations ended satisfactorily. In due time the friars were
invited to come. Father Luis de Barbastro, who spoke the lan-
guage most fluently, was the first to go. In six months the
cacique and several chiefs had been converted. A little church
had been built, and by vote of the common tribal council human
sacrifices had been made unlawful.

Then Las Casas arrived. It was a time of excitement among
the people. Their priests were furious. They clamored for
the death of the strangers. The church was burned down by
incendiaries. But the master mind of Las Casas asserted itself,
and through his gentle influence, the people voluntarily de-
stroyed their idols, and the cacique acknowledged the sov-
ereignty of the king of Spain. And thus one of the great vic-
tories of history was won without the sword.

John Fiske in Discovery of America, Vol. II., p. 472, well
says: "So when the stern conqueror and lord of Guatemala,
coming forth to greet Las Casas and the Indian king, took off his
plumed and jeweled cap, and bent his head in reverence, it
seems to me one of the beautiful moments of history, one of
the moments that comfort us with the thought of what yet may
be done with frail humanity when the Spirit of Christ shall have
come to be better understood."

The Fair Day

God gives to me this glorious day

Of snow-clad peaks and blue-bent skies
Wherein to love and dearly prize

The warmth of His celestial ray.

Sweet joy hath come again to reign!

(What of the tempest in my heart) !

God smiles and all my fears depart;
Fresh hopes, like flowers, upspring again.

Ah, list! I hear yon blue bird sing,
Begone old grief, begone dull care,
'Mid warmth and sunshine, everywhere

Eternal Love! Eternal Spring!

Salem, Utah Minnie Iverson Hodapp

The Principle of Vision

By Professor Perry G. Holden*

I am not a "Mormon," but I am a good friend of the "Mormons."
Perhaps only one other man in these United States has said more
things outside of Utah, in behalf of the "Mormons," and the great
work which they have accomplished, than I, and that is Doctor A. E.
Winship, whom many of you know.

WHAT TO SAY

I am reminded at this time of a little incident. Some
years ago it was my pleasure to be at a great Sunday School conven-
tion at Waterloo. They had had a great meeting and had listened to
some marvelous addresses, and as the boys thought they were about
through they ran for their hats, but the presiding officer said:
"I have a friend here, boys, and I want him to say a few words to
you." And they settled back with some discomfiture, and he stepped
before them and he said: "Boys, I don't know just what to say to
you this afternoon." And a boy way back in the back part of the
room didn't want to take any chances. He stood up a'nd flung his
hand a little and said : "Say, Mr., I can tell you what to say. Say,
'Amen,' and sit down."

Now, good people, for the few moments that it is my privilege
and supreme pleasure to be before you, I hope that you will have the
Spirit of God in your souls, and that you will listen to what I say
in the same spirit that I present the few things that I may be able to
present at this time ; and I am sure you will, because I have met you
people everywhere throughout this and other states, and it is a plea-
sure and a privilege that I cannot describe to you at this time to have
this opportunity of talking for a few moments with you.

I want to say Amen, from the bottom of my soul, to the ad-
dresses which I have heard today, and this last addresst is such a
wonderful thing that I wish that in some way it could be heard
throughout the length and breadth of this land, as something that
helps to dedicate and consecrate us to the great things which we can
accomplish, if we but will.

_ *Professor Holden, of Chicago, is a man of national and international repu-
tation as an extension worker. At the annual conference of the Church, in
April, 1921, he was a speaker, and was introduced by President Heber J. Grant.
Professor Holden's remarks are full of strong points and wise counsel, and
worthy of careful consideration by the boys and girls of the Church. — Editors.
fBy Richard R. Lyman, of the Council of the Twelve. See Conference Re-
port, pp. 142-46, April, 1921.

12 IMPROVEMENT ERA

THE CALF PATH OF OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN

I want to refer to a little poem to illustrate a great principle
upon which all progress depends. Samuel Walter Foss wrote many
beautiful things. You know he wrote the wonderful little poem
entitled: "Let me live in my house by the side of the road, where
the race of men go by, men who are good and men who are bad, as
good and bad as I." And then he wrote another wonderful little
poem with a very common name, entitled : "The Calf Path." He tells
the story of this calf that went out to pasture one morning from
Boston, when it was a little shack of a town. At night the calf came
home as all good calves do, but it made a very crooked trail, all bent
askew, winding in and out and round about through the brush. The
next day the old bell wether sheep took up this same trail and all
the other good sheep followed, and a path was made through those
primeval woods. Then the people followed this little path, winding
in and out and round about through the brush over to a neighboring
settlement, and then they built little homes by the side of this path,
and they cleared off the land and it became a road, and then they
built houses and stores and it became a street. Then they built
great manufacturing plants by the side of it, and it became the avenue
over which the commerce of a continent has passed. Samuel Walter
Foss then falters, and says : "But you know that was three
centuries ago, and I infer that the calf is now dead." The good
people of Boston cannot straighten that calf path today. You people
are building, have been building and are building a great empire. The
religion, the calf paths of home-making, and the calf paths of
humanity-making — those calf paths that you have been making and
will make for the next twenty or thirty years will be the calf paths
that our children's children's children must tread for the thousands
and the tens of thousands of years to come. Building so, putting the
very best that we have into our lives at this time, that we may help
to make those calf paths straight, that it may be said a thousand
and ten thousand years from today: O, they builded better than they
knew. I wonder if we begin to realize the tremendous responsibilities
that rest upon us at this hour and this day. People, I am wondering if
you will lose your great birth-right ; and what a birth-right you have !
Men and women like these who came here, came over this great
continent, years ago and suffered as they suffered, lost their dear
ones, as they did, and endured that they might come here and build
up an empire that should represent their principles! They sacrificed
much.

THE ^MORMON" CHURCH AND THE PRINCIPLE OF VISION

And now, you know, people, I am wondering if you and I are
willing to cross* a continent today, as they crossed a continent in those
days that have gone by. If we are not willing to suffer as they

THE PRINCIPLE OF VISION 13

suffered, if we are not willing to go through what they went through,
then we are losing our birth-right. I fear there are many of us
younger people that would not endure, would not think of going
through all that they have gone through ; and don't you think for a
moment that there isn't just as much need of suffering today for
principles, for rights, for our boys and girls, for our homes, and
for America as there was in those days. The question is whether
we are consecrated, whether we are dedicated, whether we have a
vision ! In my estimation your Church illustrates better than any-
thing I have ever known in all America, the great principle of vision.
Where there is no vision the people perish, and today you are blessed,
because the people before you had a vision, and not only had a vision,
but were willing to live and die for it if necessary. That is whac
made you great. I admire your great buildings, I admire your tem-
ple, I admire your fine buildings and schools that I find everywhere,
all over this land of yours; but, people, more than all, do you know
what I admire most? It is your people whom you have reared under
this religion of yours. When I said to you I was a friend of the
"Mormons," I meant all that could be said in those words. It was
not to please you. It was because I believe in it. A religion that
will do what your religion has done, not only for the temporal things,
but for human beings, for God, is certainly a great religion, and you
ought to be proud of it. I want to say to you that the time is coming
when your religion is going to be understood as it should be under-
stood, in this world, and I want to say that through some of the
things that you have been doing, you have come into more favor-
able attention over the United States, within the last two or three
years, than in all the time put together before.

You have thought of your boys, of your girls, of your homes, and
it is the outgrowth of religion that made it possible to put through
your legislatures that wonderful bill that prevents the use of cigarettes
in this state, and I say it should go out to all of the states of this
Union. It is wonderful what your religion has done. Let me say to
you, that I fear sometimes that the people who enjoy it, who live
here and have not been out, as some of us have, over all this great
world, do not appreciate the greatness of what you have. I wish
that, some way, I could say it to you.

THE "MORMONS" LIKE OTHER PEOPLE WITH A DIFFERENCE

I wonder if you will pardon me for saying one or two little
things? They may seem entirely out of place, but I couldn't help
but think of it as those words were uttered here by the former
speaker. Last year, as I was in your state, I went out over it with
the hope of holding a large meeting with the one motto in mind
that a state is made of men and women, and not of houses and fac-
tories and wealth. So, I went out. I was telling them, of your schools

14 IMPROVEMENT ERA

and your education, and as I was leaving Provo for a trip through
to Ogden, where I was to speak, some of the people from the east
with me on that commission, said: "Mr. Holden, these people look
very much like other people." And I said : "Why, yes," but I said
that there is a good deal of difference in some respects, and I want
to tell you of one or two of the things I have noticed, -as I have been
out here working among these people. I will demonstrate it to you
— and I said, do you know anywhere through Colorado or Illinois or
Iowa, or everywhere you stop at a depot, that there you find young
men about the depot, leaning up against the wall or railing, smoking
and chewing and passing remarks about the people that get on and
off the train? Now, I have gone up and down this state, and it
has been peculiar to me that I haven't observed that anywhere. And
they said nothing, and we got through to Ogden, and one of them
turned to the other, "and then they turned to me, and said: "Mr.
Holden, we thought we would take you up on that statement," and
they said, "We have made a good many stops" — I don't know how
many, twenty or thirty stops — "and we have yet to see the first young
man standing by the side of the depot smoking, on our trip through."
Now, I was glad that it didn't happen that there were any boys
smoking while they were in my company.

OUR PRINCIPLES RIGHT, BUT ARE WE DRIFTING?

The other night, at Rexburg, at that wonderful little city — and
I want to say to you that you have a little city up there that i's
setting an example to the rest of the world — throughout the year,
every year, all the program which you are putting over there, and
which you have been putting over there, is wonderful. It is helpful.
It must go through all the United States, and you people are setting
the example to us. As Mr. Ryan came down the street he was telling
this little incident: By the front of the town hall, there were a
1iunch of young people gathered, and he went away first, then came
^ack and walked back and forth two or three times, that he might
observe. During the time that he was there not a cigarette was in
evidence, not a cigar; neither was there any profane language, or
any language that wouldn't be proper before the father and the
mother, and he told that incident there ; and that has been my obser-
vation. Now people, your principles are right, but are we realizing,
are we living up to them fully, or are we drifting away just a little
bit?

Now, I want to say, as I said to some people over at Payson the
other day. "There are two kinds of audiences I like to speak to.
One is a penitentiary audience and another is a 'Mormon' audience ;
for," I said, "you know that no matter what happens or how late it
is you know they will all be there until you get through." And you
know, good people, that one of the things that impressed so much

THE PRINCIPLE OF VISION 15

those eastern people, as they came here last year, was that when
you open your meetings you open with a prayer, and ask that the
people might have open hearts and willing souls to gather from what
the speaker may say something to take home ; and then they closed
with prayer that we shall take home some of these things and put
them into our lives and into our practices. I hope you will never
give up those little customs, because they are wonderful. Another
thing that you are different in, the little courtesies, which you always
have, that of your seeking to put respect and dignity into all things.
I must compliment you upon those things because they belong to
you. And there are a good many things that stand for education ;
and you stand for the boys and the girls., as was said in these words
by the President, that if you will take care of the young men of the
Church today, and the young women, the young men and the young
women will take care of the Church tomorrow.

DUTY IN THE HOME AN EXPERIENCE

Now we must do our duty in our homes. If the spirit of the
Lord is in your souls to such an extent, I! may tell you of an
experience and not be misunderstood, for it is not egotism. It is
just my wish to help to put into your souls and hearts those things
that you can take back with you to make better homes, better educa-
tion and a better Church, and so I want to tell of this little thing.
When growing up in our own home we had to work. It was so new,
we were one hundred and fifty miles from the end of the railroad,
and we grubbed the stumps and worked ; and they had a ball game,
and we wanted to go to the ball game on Saturday afternoon. Father
didn't seem to think that was worth while, and we got a notion into
our heads that we were going to the ball game, and we would run
away from home. We were passing from the barbarian stage, I
think, at that time. But that was, nevertheless, the situation. So,
we decided we were going down to the house and tell father we
wouldn't work like this all the while, unless we had a chance to play
a little bit. So, finally, it was decided to do it, and then the question
came as to who should go ; and that was different ! But finally, my
brother gave a suggestion, that may be, if all went down he wouldn't
lick all of us. So we all started and went pretty fast for a ways.
Finally, we got to going a little slower, as the importance of the case
dawned upon us ; and, by the time we got pretty near to our house,
we saw father go out towards the barn. We let him go, and went to
the house and told mother instead of father. Father was one of
those stern, New England people who always said : "Boys, I guess
you had better do so and so, now," — he never guessed but once, and
so you see how it was we told mother about it ! I will never forget
as we came into the house, and my brother began to tell how we
wasn't going to work like this, she turned and looked at us and then
she rubbed out the piece of dough in her hand, looked down the side

16 IMPROVEMENT ERA

once or twice, and when she was through she turned around and
with a smile, she lined us up by the crack in the floor of the old log
cabin — and then she stood back and looked us over and she said:
"Boys, you're not working too hard," that is not what is ailing you,
it is work that will make you. If you don't work you will be tramps,
you will be beggars and will be in the penitentiary somewhere." She
said : "No, I know what is the matter with you, you want to go down
to that ball game on Saturday." She had just touched the spot.
Now, I don't know how we got away from that place. I can't remem-
ber a thing about it. I think we just evaporated, but anyway on this
next Monday morning the thing happened in our home that trans-
formed it and transformed our lives. I think father and mother had
had a consultation over our difficulties, over Sunday, and as Monday
morning came and breakfast was over, father stood around a little
and by and by — he didn't know what else to do — he went out and cut
an armful of wood.

While he was out, mother spoke up and said : "Boys, why don't
you sit down and talk with your father a little while? May be you
can arrange to go to that ball game Saturday." Father came in.
He threw the wood in the box, and then he stood around again for a
little while, and we all stood around. By and by mother saw the
situation, and I sometimes think that mothers have a little longer
vision than fathers, and she said: "Father, it's raining this morning
a little, why don't you sit down and visit with the boys? I guess they
would like to talk to you." He sat out the chairs and mother started
about the work, but he said : "No, mother, we want you to sit down
with us for a few minutes." When we were seated he raised up his
hand like this, two or three times, and he said : "Boys, your mother
and I have been trying to get a little together so that you wouldn't
have quite as hard a time getting started in the world as we had,
but it is all for you. We can't take it with us. Now," he said, "I
want you to help plan the work for this farm for next year."

I want to say to you, fathers and mothers, that that was the
richest, and I think the best, thing ever said in our home. "I want
you to help me plan the work for this farm for next year!" The
sun was brighter, the grove was greener. My, I got through early
that day, and came around the corner to get the mail, but really
to tell the boys all about what we were going to do on *the farm
next year. On next Monday morning, when breakfast was over,
fatlieri said : "Boys don't you think it would be a good thing for us to
sit down for a few minutes and plan the work for the week?" So
from that day until my father's death, we sat down for a few mo-
ments, about fifteen to thirty minutes every Monday morning, and
there we planned and talked over together the things we were to do.

The idea of us boys helping father plan the work! I remember
thif Monday morning, when we were through, father said: "Well,

THE PRINCIPLE OF VISION 17

boys, I have no criticism only this, you planned too much." He said,
"it might rain, or perhaps you would like to go to the ball game Sat-
urday afternoon." And now I want to say another little thing1. He
said: "Boys, remember that when we agree to do certain things we
must do them, if it takes all night." And I have been glad a thous-
and times over what he said, and through all the years after, father
never carried out anything else that wasn't agreed on, unless we had
a meeting and settled it.

GREAT MEN AND WOMEN MADE IN THE HOME

And I want to say, folks, if we are to have great men and
women, with richness in their souls, truth in their lives, and relia-
bility and dependability, we must make them in the home primarily.
It must not be turned over to the school alone, because it is a task
that they can not handle alone, as much as they can do. And I have
been thankful that through all these years, no matter how trivial a
thing was promised, that thing was granted.

One of your good citizens, you would know his name if I men-
tioned it, at Logan the other day came to me and said : "Mr. Holden,
I am sorry that I cannot hear you in the tabernacle today, because I
promised my pupils that I would go up the canyon and eat dinner
with them, and I mustn't disappoint them." You know how proud
I was of that citizen who was keeping faith with these dear boys and
girls ! That is one of the grandest things that could possibly be done.

THE INFLUENCE OF GREAT TEACHERS

Now people, just, one other thought, and I must close. I want to
refer to a little thing that has had a great influence on me through-
out my life, and that was a great teacher. I was a good deal of
trouble to all of the teachers that came to me, and they troubled me
a good deal. They seemed to think that, some way, they had to lick
me in order to settle everything for the whole school, and I guess
that was all right, as I think about it, though I didn't at that time;
but the time came when we had a great teacher come into our midst,
and that teacher wasn't looking for the bad that was in us. He was
looking for the good that was in us. I want to say to you people if
we go through this world looking for the bad, we find it everywhere,
but if we go through this world looking for the good that is in it,
we find it everywhere; and this teacher was looking for the good
in it. One time as I leaped out of the door of the school house, at
recess, I landed in his hands. I went out with a whoop and yell. You
could hear me half a block away, and he got me, and I thought my
time had come, but instead of that I felt him pulling away at my
chin, and he was smiling, and that was an event in my life, because
no teacher ever smiled on me before. And as he pulled, tugged away
on it, he made a little remark. The great railroad had been built

18 IMPROVEMENT ERA

into Traverse city, and we had been down to see the great iron horse
that pulled the train — he said: "My boy, you have lots of energy,
haven't you?" and I agreed to that all right. He said: "Do you
know, my boy, it is the same steam in an engine that makes it go
ahead that makes it go backward. It all depends on which way you
pull the lever." Further he said: "Do you know, my boy, it is the
same energy in you that will make you go ahead and do> something
worth while in this world or perhaps send you back into the peni-
tentiary? It all depends on which way you pull the lever." And you
know, good people, up at Rexburg, as we went over to that indus-
trial school, that little saying of that great teacher came into my mind,
and at other times, that they had pulled the wrong lever. Y.our
Mutual Improvement association, nobody, or any thing, no father
or great teacher had taken a hold of the very life of that very
boy or girl at the right time, so they pulled in the wrong direction.
You know over in Chicago that seventy- three per cent of the crimes
and murders are committed by our young men, from the ages of 17
to 23 years — just the time when we lose so many of them, just the
time when they are full of the ambition to do something in this world,
and they simply pull that lever in the wrong direction. Well, this
teacher didn't stop there. He said : "My boy, I would like if you
will do a little thing for me for thirty days and then if you like it,
follow it all of your life." And do you know what it was? It was a
very simple little thing, but it has just made a wonderful difference
in my life. He said : "When you get up in the morning, and look
out in this great, great world again, instead of getting up dreamy like,
with your hands in your pockets, with a grouch on ready for trouble,
just swing those good arms of yours a little and look out and see
what a great day it is, the best day of all creation, because you have
back of you all that humanity has accomplished, you are heir to it
all." And he said: "It is the greatest day of all creation, because
you have ahead of you all of the things yet to be accomplished," and
then he continued. "Stop just long enough to hold up your right
hand and say: This day I will beat my own record. I will put
the best I have in this day's work."

THE SPIRIT OF COOPERATION

Why, Mr. President, there is power enough in this organiza-
tion gathered here, to go back of certain fundamental things that you
are to put over for this year's work and accomplish it, no matter
what the obstacles are ; and when you put it over, it means that it will
go throughout the length and breadth of this land, and among the
nations of the world. It is wonderful what you can accomplish when
all have the spirit of co-operation, have the spirit of working together.

I want to give just one little illustration, and that is this, to show
what it means to co-operate and to aid at the same thing and at the

THE PRINCIPLE OF VISION 19

same time. You have that opportunity in greater degree here than in
any other organization that I know of in these United States. One
morning as I went down to my office, in Chicago, a great plate glass
window had been broken in, and the furs stolen out, and I looked a
little farther and there I saw a gunny sack filled with about two pecks
of sand. The burglar had gone across Michigan avenue and scooped
up a little sand, and then come over and slung it through the window
to break it. I couldn't help but think had he had a train full of sand,
taking up a handful of sand at one time, he could have been throwing
sand yet and he could not have broken the window ; and yet, when he
organized a peck of it, it went through easily. People, are we too
much divided, a little there and here, and over yonder, throwing
sand, little handsful of sand? Oh, if we can unite, then set out to
work at it, like you have with the anti-cigarette law; after you ac-
complished what you did with your cigarette law, there is nothing
that cannot be accomplished that is good.

PUT THE BEST YOU HAVE IN YOUR DAY'S WORK

Now, people, it has been a pleasure to me to talk to you. I wish
there was something I could say that would stimulate you, that
would make you want every morning to put the best you have into
the day's work, and into the years of your work. Let us remember
that no matter what the troubles are that come to us, if we
solve them they are for our own benefit, and remember that there is
a worst place in every road, and we have struck it perhaps now, but
that is no reason why we should lay down and give up. We must
go through those worst places, we must measure up to it, and I have
noticed them through all my work, throughout my life, that the peo-
ple who have done things for this world are the people who have car-
ried a burden, are the people who have crossed a continent for their
principles and their religion. I thank you.

My Little Son

Ah, little boy of love, my own boy blue!'
Fresh from the heaven above, pure as the dew.
Cuddle close to my breast, sweetest, wee son,
Lie in my arms at rest, for day is done.
Night with its dreams of bliss, cometh at last.
On your dear eyes a kiss, go hold them fast.
Ah, how my bosom swells, filled full with joy!
Of life your breathing tells, sweet little boy.
I thank our Father kind, that you are mine.
And in my eyes you'll find lovelight ashine'
Hobart, Tasmania A. C. A. Dean Hewer

Women and the Priesthood

By President Rudger Claivson, of the Council of the Twelve

My dear brethren and sisters: We had a glorious meeting this
morning, and now are gathered again in this building, a great
assembly of Latter-day Saints, members of the Church of Jesus
Christ, the only Church under the heavens that bears the name of
the Savior. It is true that he is not here with us in person, but he is
here by the power of his Spirit and his authority. His authority, is
called the Priesthood, the holy Priesthood after the order of the Son
of God, and this authority is held by the prophet, seer and revelacor
and the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Not only does it rest upon him, but it is widely distributed through-
out the Church, and rests in some degree upon every worthy man in
the Church.

WOMEN AND THE PRIESTHOOD.

The Priesthood is not received, or held, or exercised in any
degree, by the women of the Church ; but, nevertheless, the women
of the Church enjoy the blessings of the Priesthood through their
husbands. This emphasizes very strongly the importance of mar-
riage. Every woman in the Church, of mature age, and worthiness,
who is ambitious to attain to exaltation and glory hereafter should
be married, should be sealed to a man for time and all eternity; and
we trust that the young women of the Church as well as the young
men of the Church realize the responsibility of this important
ordinance.

THE POWER AND AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD.

The Priesthood, my brethren and sisters, is complete in itself.
Nevertheless, we know that there are two great divisions in it, namely
the Melchizedek, or higher Priesthood, and the Aaronic, or lesser
Priesthood, which lesser Priesthood is an appendage to the higher
Priesthood. The Melchizedek Priesthood administers the gospel and
holds the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the
knowledge of God. Therefore, in its ordinances the power of God
and of godliness is manifest, and without the ordinances and the
holy Priesthood the power of godliness is not manifest among men.
Therefore, wherever the holy Priesthood of God is not found in a
Church, such a church cannot be the Church of Christ.

*Delivered at the annual conference of the Church, April 3, 1921.

WOMEN AND THE PRIESTHOOD 21

Moses very well understood this great principle. He held the
higher Priesthood. He was a great prophet of God and he sought
diligently to sanctify the children of Israel, that they might behold
the face of God. But it is said in the revelation that they hardened
their hearts and could not endure his presence and therefore the
Lord in his wrath — for his anger was kindled against them — swore
that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness,
which rest is a fulness of the glory of God. In consequence of this,
the holy Melchizedek Priesthood was taken from their midst. But the
lesser Priesthood — the Priesthood that holds the keys of the ad-
ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel — was continued in
Israel down to the time of the Savior. We learn a great lesson from
this incident, for we perceive that because of the hardness of their
hearts and their unbelief and rebellion, at times, Moses and the holy
Priesthood were taken away from the children of Israel. But it is
not so with the Latter-day Saints, because you will find the authori-
ty of the holy Priesthood, the high Priesthood as well as the lesser
Priesthood, throughout all the stakes of Zion and in every ward. In
this is shown the mercy and the loving kindness and generosity of
our Father in heaven, because it is seen that God is no respecter of
persons, and that the right to the Priesthood belongs to every faith-
ful man in the Church — I think I may say it is his by right divine.
So it is.

Now, brethren and sisters, we say to all Israel, beware of hard-
ness of heart, and the spirit of rebellion, and the sin of idolatry, for
these sins are great evils in the sight of the Lord. He requires hum-
ility of heart and diligence and faithfulness and submission to his
authority. I think that there is nothing in the scriptures or in the
revelations of God that emphasizes the greatness of the power of the
holy Priesthood as the words which occur in Doctrine and Covenants,
section 84, a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Latter-
day Saints, give ear to these words and ponder them in your hearts,
for the Lord said:

_ "For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two Priesthoods of
which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the
Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies;

"They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abra-
ham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God;

"And also all they who receive this Priesthood receiveth me, saith the
Lord;

"For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;

"And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;

"And he that receiveth my Father, receiveth my Father's kingdom;
therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him;

"And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to
the Priesthood.

"Therefore, all those who receive the Priesthood, receive this oath and
covenant of my Father, which he cannot break, neither can it be moved."

22 IMPROVEMENT ERA

But now, mark you, there is a proviso, and it is significant. It
is highly important:

"But whoso breaketh this covenant, after he hath received it, and al-
together turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world
nor in the world to come."

This is the reservation, that is the proviso. Now if we shall at-
tain to these great blessings we must be humble, faithful, consistent
Latter-day Saints.

SOME PERTINENT QUESTIONS TO THOSE WHO HOLD THE PRIESTHOOD.

Now, brethren and sisters — and I say sisters because, as I have
said, the sisters participate in the blessings of the Priesthood through
their husbands — do we appreciate the Priesthood of God, this divine
authority? Do we honor it in our lives? Do we honor it in our file
leaders? Do we teach our boys at home the importance and value of
the Priesthood? Are they receiving this instruction in the various
organizations? Because, I take it that the Priesthood of God is about
the greatest gift unto man, for it represents divine authority. Let
us give heed to this matter. Oh, I pray that the responsibility of it
may rest down mightily upon the authorities in the stakes of Zion,
and that they will see to it that proper and full instruction is given
in respect to this matter.

Now may the Lord bless you, the Lord bless our President, who
has spoken so beautifully and so powerfully to us today, and Presi-
dents Penrose and Ivins. We have had rich instructions already.
Oh, if we could only fully receive it into our hearts, and carry it out
in our lives, how blest we would be ! May the spirit of the Lord con-
tinue to be upon this people and in the congregations of the Saints,
and may it rest upon the authorities of the Church, and all the
speakers at this Conference, is my prayer,; in the name of Jesus,
Amen.

Our Sunset Hills

In the west the sun descending,
Clouds with light his colors lending,
From copper pink to those of gold,
Like fairyland in days of old.
The giant steps of eastern hills,
In rainbow hues with glory fills,
There is displayed by art divine,
In playful mood — the gift is Thine,
Our sunset hills.

Carrie Tanner

The Thanksgiving of Annie Adams

By Elizabeth Cannon Porter

As the jury filed into the room, Mrs. Adams knew with
the instinct of a woman that the verdict was against her son.
She knew from the sinking of her heart that she had hoped,
in spite of everything, for mercy.

"Guilty of manplaughter."

The Judge briefly pronounced sentence: "Five years in
the State's prison."

She was glad, even in the midst of her sickness of heart,
that he took it like a man, with squared shoulders and chin
thrust out. Only once as Bert glanced in her direction did she
think his lip trembled. Then they led him out and she fumbled
for her gloves. Her son's attorney, the one she had engaged
for him, came over and gravely shook hands with her. Be-
cause he was a gentleman as well as a lawyer, and she was a good
client, and he felt sorry for her, he said: "Mrs. Adams, my
car is downstairs, and I'm not going to use it, so I'll have my
man drive you home."

She accepted gratefully. She felt that she could not bear
to have strange people gaze at her in the street car.

Outside a bleak storm was beating down. In the late, dark
afternoon, the shops were already lighting up. The green-
grocer's display, the trussed fowls, Jonathan apples, crisp cel-
ery, golden pumpkins, reminded her that it was Thanksgiving
time. She thought gruesomely of her boy's Thanksgiving and
shivered.

She crept into the auto and crouched down among the
cushions. She had not experienced such abject misery since
her husband had left her over twenty years before. Somehow
this second great calamity brought back the first. She had
failed as a wife; now she had failed as a mother. Dully, she
rehearsed her life. Her one love affair, her romance with Tom
Adams — not a bad man, but a weakling and a wanderer. He
had tarried rather longer at Westmore because he had met and
married Annie. In her desire for a home, something per-
manent, at which Tom laughed, Annie worked outside. Splend-
idly capable, she hustled home to meet her husband with a
shining kitchen and hot supper. Tom basked in the comfort
like a cat before the fire.

24 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Then the baby came. Annie lay on a sick bed for weeks
that drifted into months. Her illness ate up all that she had
saved. A sick wife, a crying baby, a hen-hussying woman who
did the work, disagreeable surroundings, unpaid bills. It was
too much for Tom. One night he brought home his wages, de-
posited the money on the table, took his hat, and walked out of
the room and of Annie's life forever. Even in her bitterest
recriminations, Annie always remembered that he left her all
he had and went away empty handed. Though she realized that
she couldn't have worked much harder, she felt that the fact
that her husband had left her reflected on her as a wife. She
had failed to keep his affections. Love is like the tide, it ebbs
and flows, and Tom had drifted off to sea. The woman did not
understand that love must be measured by the person who does
the loving, not the beloved. That is why an utterly unworthy
person will sometimes inspire a deep and lasting affection in
a true and loyal nature. A woman with thrice her charm would
not have held shallow Tom.

Annie crept back to life with a young baby, debt, desertion,
and a weakened body. But her indomitable will had conquered
everything. She named the baby, Albert Le Roi, — Albert the
Royal, — after the Prince of Wales. Then she went grimly to
work to make the home for him that she had dreamed of with
his father. The boy inherited his father's changeableness along
with his mother's courage. He drifted from one school to an-
other. It was the same with his work. He did not stick at one
job very long. A man grown, he secured a place in the ma-
chine shop of the railroad. Then came the strike, the months of
idleness, the inflamed talk among the men about the abuses of
the workingman, bad companions. Then had come the rob-
bery. Bert and three others had robbed a freight car. They
had fixed the nightwatchman, but a helper happened along and
gave the alarm. Their automobile, loaded with boxes, had
stuck on the tracks. They were surrounded and in the melee
a policeman was shot. It mattered not that the autopsy proved
that it wasn't one of young Adam's bullets that had killed the
officer. Bert was taken red handed with a smoking revolver
in his hand, and he was held equally guilty though he had not
shed the actual blood. Sentiment was stirred up against them.

Mrs. Adams went to the best lawyer she knew of, Judge
Park, a man of integrity and standing in the community. She
engaged him to defend Albert. She would mortgage her home
if necessary. Mr. Park told her frankly there was little that he
could do. It was a clear case of robbery. An officer of the
law had been killed, public opinion was stirred up. Their

THE THANKSGIVING OF ANNIE ADAMS 25

only hope of clemency lay in the prisoner's youth and the fact
that it was his first offense.

After all the years of struggle, her boy was being taken to
the penitentiary. She had come home alone. Things went
black.

The car had stopped before her house. She went up the
path and stumbled through the door.

Her cousin, Christine, had made a fire in the sitting-room
grate, and its warmth greeted her like a welcome.

"Well?" asked Christine, as she helped her off with her
things.

"It was what we expected," she replied briefly.
Christine brought her a glass of hot milk and some toast.
Somehow the little act of kindness did what all the terrors of
the day had failed to do. It loosed the floodgates and she
crumpled all up in a heap on the floor.

Christine lugged her to the lounge and phoned for the old
doctor, who was also a friend. When he entered the room the
light fell on his patient. She seemed suddenly old, as if the life
were sapped from her. He felt her pulse, then patted the
gnarled hand. She had cleaned his office for fifteen years.

"Well, well, Annie, I thought that you had more grit than
this."

"Must one show grit when one's son goes to the peniten-
tiary? I must have failed in my training, or it wouldn't have
happened. Yet, how I have worked!"

"If you made a mistake, you did too much for the boy."
"He had no father. I wanted to make it up to him."
Dr. Spencer had ushered many souls into the world, as
well as eased the departing spirit. He understood human
nature as only an old doctor can. He had been close to the
naked truth of things and he ministered to sick minds as well
as sick bodies.

"We are only the parents of our children's bodies. We are
not the parents of their souls. Their spirits existed long be-
fore they came to this world. They will go on after they leave.
If we bring them into the world, provide for their bodily wants,
when they are small, and prepare them as best we can for their
struggle in this life, that is all we can do. We can bring in-
fluences to bear on them, but in the final analysis, they, them-
selves, are responsible for their own acts. I heard a very great
man say the other day — a man who has made a success of every-
thing except raising his own son — that the Lord must have had
a good deal of confidence in him to trust him with the care of
such a rebellious spirit."

"You have heard of the 'Sieve of fulfilment,' — how we fill

26 IMPROVEMENT ERA

up an ambition, only to find that its joy has all leaked away.
A man amasses a large fortune for his son. The heir dies. A
woman dreams all her life of a beautiful home. When she gets
it she is too old to enjoy it. On the other hand, seeming ca-
lamities often are blessings in disguise. A woman toils for a
large family. She not only gives a lot of useful men and
women to the world, but she emerges pure gold, such has been
her daily training in tact, patience and efficiency. A young
man struggles with poverty. He acquires thrift, industry and
clean living, which stand him in good stead when success finally
comes his way."

"It may seem a strange thing to say, but even this terrible
thing that has come to your son may be the very thing he needs.
You used to tell me that Albert was bright and that he would
make his mark if he would stick at anything, which he wouldn't
do. The warden is a broad-minded man and will probably put
him in the machine shops, which he likes. He will keep regular
hours, stay in one place, do the work until he learns it thor-
oughly, because he will have to. It is the very training he needs,
and perhaps he had to go to jail to get it."

"What is that? Yes, you may have a powder for tonight,
Christine, bring her a glass of water."

Whereat, the old doctor put on his overcoat and departed
into the storm. After seeing him out, Christine brought Mrs.
Adam's nightgown and slippers and warmed them at the hearth.

"The doctor actually tried to make me believe that I ought
to be Thanksgiving that Albert's in the penitentiary," she
wailed.

"Well," said Christine, and her plain face looked squarer
than ever. "You have some things to be thankful for. You
had a beau and you had a husband, even if he did run off, you
bore a son and you fed and clothed him and raised him to man-
hood, even if he is in jail. You have a home to protect you
from the storms. You've had love, and sorrow, and life, while
I — " She turned and faced her in the doorway.

"I have never had anything. I am only an old maid."

Bits of Philosophy

Not war, nor famine, nor disease, but vice's insidious smile, is the most
deadly thing in the world.

Big business is the business of increasing the bank account of the
heart, adding to the treasures of the mind, and developing nobility of
character. — Nephi Jensen.

Relalion of Scientific Irrigation to
Permanency of Civilization*

By George Dewey Clyde

In the minds of those living in the great centers of the
hrnnid areas of our country, there is much speculation concern-
ing the future welfare of a commonwealth based upon irriga-
tion. Even among our national leaders there are some who
fear that our western civilization, based as it is on irrigation,
cannot long endure. To illustrate, in 1913 Dr. Beverly T. Gal-
loway, then chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, was re-
quested to appear before the Congressional Committee on Ap-
propriations to give his opinion concerning the proposed ap-
propriations for development of western irrigation. Dr. Gal-
loway made the following assertion: "As far as I know, there
never has been any long continued successful irrigation agri-
culture in any climate anywhere in the world." Do you real-
ize what he meant when he made that statement? Dr. Gal-
loway meant that the green fields, fertile farms, beautiful towns
and cities that surround us are only temporary. He meant that
the wonderful achievements brought about by the artificial ap-
plication of water are doomed to revert to the barren wastes
from whence they came. In other words, he maintains, as do
many of our national leaders, that a civilization based upon ir-
rigation cannot be permanent. Let us see if history bears out
this contention.

Irrigation is one of the oldest arts used by man. It has
been practiced for countless centuries by the Egyptians,
Arabians, Assyrians, and Chinese, and from time immemorial
has formed a basis of agriculture of the countries bordering on
the Mediterranean. The Valley of the Nile h&s ever been fa-
mous for its irrigation practice. The plains of Assyria and
Babylonia were once covered with an immense system of ir-
rigation canals, some of them hundreds of miles in length.
The Romans constructed extensive irrigation works, many of
which are still in use. These countries were the centers of early
civilization, and due to the single fact that they were based up-
on irrigation agriculture, their civilization has endured in the

*Valedictory address delivered at the graduation exercises of the class of
1921, at the Utah Agricultural College.

28 IMPROVEMENT ERA

past, and there is absolutely no reason to doubt the permanency
of their civilization in the future.

There are instances in ancient history, however, and no
doubt Dr. Galloway was thinking of these when he made the
above assertion, where highly civilized countries based on ir-
rigation have decayed and are now barren wastes, but it is only
when the reservoirs which store the water and the canals which
distribute it are destroyed by revolutions or neglect, or the
land ruined by excessive irrigation that the once fertile fields
revert to deserts and swamps.

One of the earliest examples of irrigation works of which
we have record is interesting because it illustrates not only the
prosperity which accompanies a well-managed irrigation sys-
tem, but also the ruin and desolation which, in a country de-
pendent on irrigation, inevitably follows neglect of the proper
maintenance of its irrigation works. Babylonia, which is the
part of Mesopotamia occupied by the ancient Babylonians, is
described by Herodotus as densely populated and thickly stud-
ded with great cities and prosperous towns founded upon irri-
gation agriculture.

In the course of centuries, the canal systems of Babylonia
suffered many vicissitudes. Time and again the canals were
ruined by floods and neglect of works, water was applied to
the soil in large quantities without regard to the requirement of
crops. With the destruction of the canals, and water-logging
of lands by excessive application of water, food production
became impossible and Babylonia rapidly sank into the state
of barren desolation which it now presents.

In reality, it was lack of scientific knowledge of irrigation
and not irrigation in itself, as is believed by many men, that
caused the failure of the ancient Babylonian civilization.

Why did the primitive man apply water to the dry soil?
No doubt he had observed that where the land was hard and
dry, no vegetation grew, and that where vegetation was most
abundant, the soil was moist and warm. Today we know there
are three prime factors of crop production: moisture, soil fer-
tility, and temperature; of these, moisture is by far the most
essential. If man could control these fundamental factors, the
basic problems of food production for a civilized people would
be solved.

In an arid section, as a rule, the soils are deep and in-
herently fertile ; the sunshine is abundant. The temperature
cannot be controlled, but irrigation supplies moisture which is
more vital than either heat or soil fertility, and may be con-
trolled by man. Irrigation not only supplies a deficiency of
moisture but supplies it when it is most needed. There are

RELATION OF IRRIGATION TO CIVILIZATION 29

but few parts of the earth's surface where annual rainfall is
economically distributed throughout the year, so that man can
depend upon natural moisture to mature his crops. In the
arid sections where scientific irrigation is practiced, man no
longer depends upon natural conditions for sustaining life, be-
cause he controls the life-giving moisture and applies it to his
crops at the proper time.

In the ancient world, the most populous sections are found
in regions originally desert. In such regions soil fertility can be
utilized only by irrigation, and wherever irrigation is resorted
to, the density of population, the existence of great wealth and
of empires are always found.

The Valley of Po, in Northern Italy, furnished a living ex-
ample of this fact. Here there are eight million people. The
climate of this valley, is not especially favorable, for the tem-
perature often goes down to 10 degrees, yet this little valley
provides for eight million people because one of the most im-
portant factors of food production, moisture, is under the con-
trol of man.

In modern history, the recent rapid growth of Southern
California with her beautiful cities, orchards, and farms is the
most remarkable instance of rapidity of growth associated with
maturity of civilized conditions to be found anywhere. This
exceptional instance of community life of Southern California,
and the exaltation of civilization there is due to the single
fact that the entire superstructure of that commonwealth stands
upon the science of irrigation. Take from the advanced civil-
ization of Southern California all that portion due to irri-
gation, and its splendid cities would relapse into the romance of
adobe hamlets and the tropical luxuriance of its orchards and its
avenues and farms would revert to their original condition of
arid solitude. Lizards and cacti would again reign supreme.
The "Mormon" people were the first Anglo-Saxon to prac-
tice the artificial application of water in America, and Utah
stands today the greatest monument to irrigation in the word.
When our fathers and grandfathers, the pioneers, came to Utah,
in July, 1847, they found here an arid desert; they converted
it into a fertile garden and founded upon irrigation agriculture
this great commonwealth in which we now live.

Our civilization can fail only when our agriculture is de-
stroyed. Irrigation agriculture is largely controlled by man;
therefore, our civilization, based as it is upon the scientific
application of water to the soil, will endure as long as our public
intelligence and vigor lasts.

But you may say as did Galloway and others that we have
no assurance of the permanence of the water supply or of the

30 IMPROVEMENT ERA

soil fertility now making the beauty of Utah, Idaho, California,
and other irrigated sections possible. The rapidly increasing
intelligence and scientific knowledge of our western civiliza-
tion, however, assures the permanence of both the water sup-
ply and soil fertility. The massive storage dams, great head-
gates, steel flumes, syphons, and concrete tunnels built by
the engineering profession during the last few decades assure
the control of our water supply. Likewise, the application of
the science of irrigation, of which the Babylonians knew noth-
ing; to the prevention of seepage losses of water from canals;
to the smoothing and leveling of land in order to reduce the
runoff losses; to a study of the capacity of soils to absorb and
retain water; thus preventing excessive losses by deep percola-
tion through the soil and subsequent water-logging; and to the
economical use of water, supplemented by drainage where neces-
sary— to all of these problems the application of science doubly
assures the permanence of the fertility of our irrigated soils, thus
making scientific irrigation the basis of a permanent civiliza-
tion.

In the early days of irrigation, the easily accessible streams
were diverted first. The first canals were taken out near the
bottom of the valleys to avoid expensive construction. As time
went on and more land was brought under cultivation, canals
were built higher up, until the available water supply was en-
tirely appropriated.

Up to this point in our irrigation development, there was
plenty of water for all during the spring floods, but later in
the season only those with prior rights to the water had suf-
ficient to mature their crops, and the rest were burned out.
By means of storage reservoirs, the rainfall over the entire
drainage basin is collected and held till the crops require it.
Thus storage reservoirs not only increase the available sup-
ply of water but they stabilize irrigation agriculture. On prac-
tically all of the projects built by the United States Reclama-
tion Service, large storage reservoirs have been built to store
the spring floods so that the water can be distributed over the
land when most needed. Our huge storage reservoirs and di-
version works, our headgates and concrete-lined canals, insure
permanent supply of moisture, stabilize our agriculture, and
thus tend to make our civilization everlasting.

The water supply of arid regious is the real limiting factor
in our agricultural development, and in consequence, measures
must be adopted to regulate and control its use. The import-
ant problem is to determine the actual water requirements of
crops under field conditions and to make use of this informa-
tion as a basis for arriving at an economical use of water. The

RELATION OF IRRIGATION TO CIVILIZATION 31

problem is a complex one because so many variable factors
enter, water requirement of crops, climate, fertility, texture,
chemical composition, and depth of the soil enter in all their
complexities, making the determination of an economical use
of water extremely difficult if not impossible of a fixed solu-
tion.

According to the 1910 census, the average amount of water
used per acre of irrigated land was enough to cover each acre
to a depth of 4.75 feet. Dr. Samuel Fortier states that at that
rate, there is sufficient water available in the seventeen western
states to irrigate 50,000,000 acres of land. The arable area in
the same states is approximately 350,000,000 acres. Therefore
it appears that the future development of the western states
depends in no small degree on the care exercised in alloting and
using our limited water supply.

Out of every four gallons of water diverted from the river
or stored in a reservoir only one gallon is now utilized for pro-
duction of crops. What becomes of the other three gallons?
It is not only lost to beneficial use, but it fills up the under-
ground reservoirs and drowns the lowlands.

The seepage losses from canals alone frequently amount to
two gallons out of every four diverted from the river. Another
one-half gallon is lost through surface run-off due to poor
preparation of the land. Also one-half gallon is lost through
deep percolation, thus making a total loss of three gallons out of
every four, due to loose, careless irrigation practice.

By applying the scientific knowledge of irrigation that has
been developed in the past few decades, first to the construction
and maintenance of our canal systems; second, to the prepara-
tion of land so as to permit the uniform distribution of water,
and finally, to a study of the soil conditions and water require-
ment of crops, it has been demonstrated that we may economic-
ally utilize 75 per cent of our total water supply; whereas, we
are now utilizing only 25 per cent. Moreover, by a more eco-
nomical use of water on our lands, the problem of water-log-
ging, which was the real cause of Babylonia's ruin, will be
largely solved. Under the best irrigation management yet
shown to be feasible, there is still one gallon of water out of
every four diverted that is lost, and this one-fourth will con-
tinue to aid in the water-logging of our low-lands. However,
scientific irrigation which assures the premanency of our civil-
ization, provides a remedy which will take care of this 25 per
cent of our water supply will also reclaim the areas that have
become water-logged through careless, unscientific methods of
applying water to our soils. Consistent drainage is the remedy.

It is true that some of our lands have become water-logged

32 IMPROVEMENT ERA

through I wasteful DM <>!' water; but that properly installed
drainage system* will reclaim such lands has been fully dem-
onstrated. Water-logged lands, due to excessive irrigation, are
not as Mr. Galloway infer-, a permanent injury, but a temporary
one that can be and is being removed on our water-logged
lauds.

From a consideration of the above questions, we can prop-
erly make the following conclusions:

The civilization of Babylonia did not fall because it was
founded on irrigation agriculture, but because the Babylonians
failed to recognize the fundamentals upon which irrigation de-
pends. They knew but little about soil fertility or about deep
percolation, or runoff water losses, and there are no evidences
that the art of drainage was ever known to them.

Today our engineers are building huge storage and di-
version works; and our scientists are studying the soil, the
water requirement of crops, the losses of water in conveyance,
the runoff and deep percolation losses, the methods of drainage,
and removal of alkali.

As a result of the great work of our scientists and engin-
eers, we can now apply the principles of scientific irrigation
to our irrigation practice. Of these principles, it appears that
the Babylonians knew nothing. Supplemented with drainage,
where necessary, the application of these basic scientific prin-
ciples assures the permanence of our water supply, and the
permanence of our soil fertility; and thus, the permanence of
a civilization based upon scientific irrigation.

The words of Mr. A. F. Doremus, former State Engineer
of Utah, express a true tribute to irrigation: "Born of ob-
scurity and despised as menial, irrigation has grown to be
king of the rapidly developing west, and by virtue of its power
to bless and benefit mankind, it has compelled the respect and
admiration of all. Its promise is potent, its progress sure."

Up Against It'

Obstruction is often a ladder; if we
Look up and rejoice we have sensed it;

Then, if we're not blind,

"We surely can find
The rungs and be lifted by each a degree
Toward hoped for success; up where we can uee

It was blessed to be "Up against it"
San Diego, California Satella J agues Penman

The Surprise Genuine

By Rulon P. Bennion

I

In his newly built cabin of pine logs, Pete Purdy sat before
a comfortable fire and listened to the low sighing of the wind
in the trees outside. The cabin stood in a small clearing, near
the creek which flowed along the bottom of the wooded canyon
valley. Every evening, as now, the wind would come stealing
down from the high mountains to the south and pass quietly out
onto the great warm floor of Beson Valley, there to swirl and
contradict itself and rise into the cloudless heavens. And every
evening, Pete Purdy would sit and listen to it, as he gazed into
the fire and planned for the winter that was ahead. He had
come in the late summer and, finding the place to his liking,
had hurried back to the county seat to claim it, returning im-
mediately with a wagon-load of supplies, and his small herd of
twenty cattle. Since that time he had been occupied with build-
ing the cabin and such corrals and sheds as he needed.

The location could not have pleased him better. He had
wished for a spot where he could pursue his rather devious
way9 undisturbed. He wanted to be alone, away from the criti-
cism, advice, and sordid troubles of neighbors. He wanted a
small, certain income— an occupation which would insure mod-
erate returns, yet occasion no worry. And the narrow, lonely,
canyon valley seemed to suit his needs exactly. There was an
abundant supply of water everlastingly bubbling by in sheer
willingness to wet the throat of cow or man. There was a goodly
acreage of fertile soil, if he would trouble himself to clear it.
There was pasture in the foothills that would keep his cattle in
splendid condition both summer and winter — for it snows but
little in the desert foothills. Above all, there was the seclusion
he desired. He went at his work slowly, contentedly, taking a
silent pleasure in building his own house, sheds, fences.

He had discovered something, recently, concerning Beson
Valley which he never dreamed of at the time he entered it —
something which, no doubt, would have caused him to wander
many a mile further in search of a home, had he known it then.
Yet, since the information came so late, and since he had not
settled in Beson Valley itself, but in a cedar-filled canyon en-
trance adjoining it, he decided not to be troubled about the

34 IMPROVEMENT ERA

matter, until it troubled him. Beson Valley has proved itself a
veritable winter-paradise for the sheep-owners of the surround-
ing counties. Its hard, white impervious soil, covered with noth-
ing but scraggly greasewoods and shadscales, furnishes enough
vegetation for the satisfactory wintering of sheep. It covers an
immense territory, and in the fall of each year the sheep trail in
from the various counties until hundreds of thousands of them
can be seen crawling over its gray floor, or lined up at the creek
where all must drink. And woe to the stockman or rancher
who, at such time, treads its inviolate two-inch soil. It is his
season of reckoning. The sheepmen argue priority of occu-
pancy, and they argue that the soil is worthless for farming and
the pastures too poor for cattle, and if their arguments prove
ineffectual they are quite apt to weight them with lead.

To this day not a building or a fence breaks the continuity
of the great expanse, with the exception of the queer, rambling
conglomeration of corrals and cabins the sheepmen themselves
have erected on Beson Creek for their convenience in mid-
winter. Here they keep their supplies — hay and grain for teams,
food, extra clothing, everything their foresight tells them they
may require. Here the carrier leaves their mail on his way wes^
to other settlements on the desert, and here they have always,
heretofore, gathered to drink and amuse themselves through the
long winter evenings. An old man by the odd name of Charlie
Edith has for many years been hired to stay and look after the
place and run a sort of store and postoffice during the busy
season.

In the late fall, a white camp appears on every knoll, stand-
ing solitary and deserted at mid-day, like a wrecked schooner
thrown up by the waves. Only the orderly array of harness on
the tongue, and possibly a faint trace of wood-smoke rising in
the thin, clear air above, disclaim complete desertion. Thread-
ing the shallow valleys, or roaming over the low, barren rises,
tended by solitary men on horseback, are the sheep — many
thousands of them. The drowsy tinkle of their bells, the warm
Indian summer sun, the intermittent sound of the camp-tend-
er's guitar, produce an effect of peaceful somnolence that every
herder knows and loves. The still air, however invisible, gives
a soft, mellow tone to the landscape. It gleams with tiny,
spidery filaments. Through it the lazy tink, tink, of the bells,
and the staccato barking of the sheep-dogs, carry for seemingly
impossible distances. Small wonder that the sheepmen regard
invasion with savage glints in their eyes, and small wonder, too,
that they have kept to this day their sacred preserve, untouched
by outsiders.

It was into this scene that Pete Pvirdy unwittingly intruded

THE SURPRISE GENUINE 35

himself. He still felt secure in that his homestead occupied
merely a wooded corner among the foothills, an area so negli-
gible that the sheepmen would not consider it worth while to
interfere. Still the circumstances were somewhat disquieting,
and he knew they would remain so, until he had either been
taken for granted or ousted.

So it was with a mingling of apprehensive uneasiness and
comfortable weariness that he sat before the fire on the late
October night. He knew that if fair means were taken to induce
him to leave, he would be only too willing to go. Probably
he would drift further into the desert, counting on finding as
good a prospect somewhere there. But if foul means were re-
sorted to — it was this thought that caused him to debate se-
riously— if the sheepmen strove to drive him out by unlawful
means, what would he do? He leaned back meditatively! Did
he have wits enough to cope with them? What sort of means
would they employ if they decided to be forcibly rid of him?

Suddenly there was a loud three-double rap at the door.
His feet came to the floor with a bang, and then he stood ir-
resolute, wondering if it could have been merely the wind. As
he stood, there was a sharp crack outside, and the glass of one
window rattled on the floor. A bullet imbedded itself with a
thud in the wall above the bed. He was turning quickly toward
the door, intending to bolt it, when he saw a large envelope on
the floor just inside.

He bolted the door and carried the envelope to the fire,
gazing at it some time before he tore it open. Inside was a
piece of white, blue-lined note-paper bearing the following
message :

Warning— We hereby take pleasure in notifying you, Mr. Settler, that
Beson Valley and all its adjuncts are pre-empted. We wish to inform you
that you are not wanted, and we give you ten days to get out. If you are
still here November 7 you will be sorry you ever sighted this layout.

X.

Pete Purdy sat down by the stove. He had settled on
Beson Creek as innocent of the sin he was committing as a horse
eating out of another's stall. He had singled it out as a suitable
haven from troublesome neighbors. He had come away into the
desert for the sole purpose of fleeing petty annoyances. Frying
pan into the fire — most obvious case! The idea of disputing
ownership with anybody over anything was obnoxious. And
yet, — quiet, unassertive man that he was — Pete Purdy was net-
tled— stung to the quick.

He crumpled the note savagely and flung it into the fire.

"Phew!" he said, "wouldn't that cook you? And a pistol

36 IMPROVEMENT ERA

shot by way of signature. Those gents mean business. Well,
let 'em. This is once I balk."

He rummaged a piece of cardboard from the pile of boxe3
in the corner, and shut the draft out of the broken window.
This effected, he flung the bedclothes back, undressed, and went
to bed.

II

Ten days later Pete Purdy sat on a log in front of his door-
step when two irate horsemen rode into the clearing. He was
whittling an axe helve, which he laid aside, rising to greet them
good-naturedly. But they broke him off short.

"Look here, you upstart, perhaps you ain't acquainted with
the ways of this here country. You needn't expect no allowances
for that. When we give a man notice to get out, he gets out —
without giving a chance for words that ain't civil. Now if you
got any idee — "

"Why, yes, but what's the 'dif.' I refuse to get out."

Both men grinned. "Oh you refuse, do you? Well, right
here's where the fun starts. Con, get that log-chain." The older
man covered Purdy with a revolver.

The other leaped from his horse and went to get the heavy
log-chain, which lay over a stump nearby.

"We got a little procedure all figured out, Mr. Slocum. Fig-
ured it out on the road up, after seeing your smoke this morn-
ing. Nothing much to it, simple as Yankee Doodle, but ef-
fective. It won't hurt you, though. Just a little gentle per-
suasion such as you'll relish. Do you good. We'll be up every
other day to see how you're progressing, and when you're good
and tired and ready to say, 'pretty, please,' why, we'll bid you
good luck. Here, Con — "

He pulled from his coat and handed his partner a heavy
pair of handcuffs.

"Will you kindly inform me," said Purdy, "What you in-
tend to do?"

"Oh, most certainly," said the man addressed as Con. "Just
hold out your mitts a jiffy and let me clap these handcuffs on.
Have you got a pocketknife?"

"Yes."

"Well, we're going to stake you to that big cedar down by
the creek." He pointed to a great half-dead cedar at the further
side of the clearing. "Get his bedding, Jim. I reckon he'll need
it. Come on, Slocum, forward march."

The eighteen foot drag-chain just circled the tree below
its heavy, spreading branches. Its two ends they locked se-

THE SURPRISE GENUINE 37

curely in one end of the handcuffs. The other cuff went around
Purdy's left wrist.

"Now, young sweetie, you begin to savvy, eh? The idea is
to cut the tree off with your jack-knife. If you manage it, why,
you can have your old homestead, and welcome. But in case you
get tired, or hungry, for instance, you better let us know. We'll
give you a free escort outside Beson Valley, and enough grub to
last you home. In the meantime — well, you can entertain your-
self with your jack-knife. Quite an idea, don't you think, old
sour-plum? Here comes your bedding."

Purdy had indeed begun to look a trifle sour. If he had
ever felt that he could cope with the situation he very much
doubted it now. He began to play for a possible advantage.

"If you don't mind, Jim," he said when they had made his
fastenings complete, "I'd like to have you bring my stove down,
and a couple of sacks of coal you'll find back under the bed."

The two men debated his request silently, and finally Jim
said, "Get it, Con. He'd best be comfortable, and he can burn
the tree down as quick with a match as a cook-stove. Only
with that twenty inch leash of his I imagine he'd find it a bit
too hot for comfort. I sort of think, partner, you'd best be a
little shy with fire, now. Get them dry twigs lighted, and you'll
roast a nice, juicy brown — no mistake."

"Hey, Jim," called Con from the house. "You fetch the
stove. I'm bringing the coal."

"All right. By the way, what about the pony?"

"There's no feed for the pony," remarked Purdy, "but if
you'll turn her out of the stable so's she can pasture — "

"Not on your slick hide we don't," cut in Jim, "This here's
a decidedly private affair. We don't want no whole raft of Slo-
cumses shelling out right in the midst of the picnic. That
wouldn't do at all. No, we'll take care of your pony. Old man
Charlie'U take care of her while we're debating this matter."

"As you say, Jim, it's not unlikely she might take a notion
to trail off home if we let her loose. Never thought of that.
Don't turn her in with any of the other horses, though."

"She'll be put right in the upper west corral by the creek.
All the feed and water she wants and all her company on the
other side of the fence. Promise you that."

Con had by this time brought both the stove and the coal, so,
with a parting taunt for the prisoner, the two men swung into
their saddles and rode away.

Purdy watched them with a complacent grin, for a minute
or two, and then kicked one of the sacks of coal.

"Too gosh-blinked much of a hurry for their own good," he
said after them. "Ain't that too rich for a cake? Figure to

38 IMPROVEMENT ERA

starve me out, eh? And viind up by making me a present of a
hundred-pound sack of potatoes. Take sometime I reckon. And
in the meanwhile — we'll entertain ourself speculating on a way
out of this."

His first act was to work the chain about the tree down to
within thirty inches of the ground, as that seemed to offer the
greatest freedom. His bedding, he placed between the tree and
the water, which ran past, three feet to the west. The stove he
placed on a level mound, south of the tree, where its smoke
would blow away around the other side. The coal and potatoes
he leaned up against the north side. Convenient disposition
thus made, he kindled a fire and put a potato in the oven to
bake. The sun had set.

His supper was perforce a slight one and a saltless one, but
he enjoyed it none the less. It evidenced superior strategy. It
replaced despair with a modicum of hope and gave him stom-
ach for the enterprise. When it was over, he lay a long time
looking up through the black branches and finally dozed off to
sleep.

Ill

The next day was cold and windy enough to take the zest
quite out of him. The smoke of the fire wheeled about him in fit-
ful gusts, making him cough and sputter and curse the sheep-
men for neglecting to bring him the stovepipe. He felt miser-
able and discouraged and at times half inclined to give up. He
examined the heavy chain and handcuffs closely and sensed
that resistance was really futile. The outcome seemed unavoid-
able, however far off. Yet every added discomfort caused the
insolence of the two men to sting more deeply, till he vowed he
would resist to the bitter finish.

On the second day, Jim and Con, and a weazened, evil-look-
ing man named Tupper, visited him toward late afternoon. They
found him wrapped in his blanket, coughing, his face all blowzy
with the wind and smoke, his hands chapped and bleeding, his
bed and clothing dusty and bedraggled. But his determination
was still unshaken, so that all they could do was to swear and
stamp around and finally ride away again, imparting the in-
formation that they would not be back for four days. Con was
still inclined to twit him goodnaturedly, but the older men
were plain-spoken and sullen. He recognized them now as part-
ners of a bad reputation. The more scrupulous sheepmen had
evidently chosen them for this task. Tupper was not a sheep-
man at all, but a roustabout and gambler whom the sheepmen
tolerated because of his lucky faculty for locating illicit liquor.
He stayed at old Charlie's, as the establishment on Beson Creek

THE SURPRISE GENUINE 39

was called, and played dry-farmer on the west bank by way of
blind.

It was while Purdy was unraveling these facts that an idea
struck him — an idea so timely and so novel in character that he
jumped clear of his blankets and acted for several minutes like a
man bewitched. The disreputable Tupper had plowed several
small plots on the west bank of Beson Creek and pretended to
plant for dry-farm crops. No crops had ever materialized, but
the shallow cultivation had encouraged a goodly growth of
weeds, which the southwest wind had tossed hither and yon up-
on the desert and piled up in a great windrow against the west
corral fences of the Charlie place, forming a great, ungainly
bridge over the creek, for many yards. It was in the adjoining
corral where Pete's little pony, Dot, would be confined.

And so his mind, once started in the right direction, leaped
to an amazing conclusion. In the next minute he was busy cal-
culating the number of dry branches he could reach and break
out of the aged tree. He glanced grudgingly at the fire, which
was at that moment devouring several heavy, straight sticks.

"Nope, it's no go," he said, at last, and sat down by the fire
with a crestfallen air. He made a movement to reclaim the
burning sticks, but ended by shoving them completely into the
fire and closing the door.

"Let's see, I've simply got to get more wood." He fell into
a long reverie from which he would occasionally rouse himself
with a deep-drawn sigh, straightway to fall musing again.

"I'll beat those fellows yet," he would exclaim suddenly.
"I've got to. By George, if I can only get more wood, I'll sur-
prise those rascals so bad their beards'll fall out. It looks like
I've just got to wait for fairer weather though. Torture, but it's
going to be hard to wait now!"

For Purdy, that night was an aeon. The next day dragged
through after it. From time to time, he would peel a hot, now
also frozen, potato and munch it between swallows of water.
The wood he used freely so as to have an excuse to ask for more
when the sheepmen paid him their next visit. It seemed im-
possible to do anything but wait and count on tricking them into
helping him effect his escape.

At last, on the fourth day, Con came. Prudy felt a secret
thrill of gratification when he saw him riding down the gentle
slope, alone. If he had asked for anything, it would have been
exactly that.

"Hello, Con," he said, cheerily. "Still alive and able to wag
my toes. Blamed near famished though."

"Great Scott, man," and this time Con Redd was in earnest.
"I fully expected to find you dead. Six days without a snack.

40 IMPROVEMENT ERA

I honestly feel sorry for you, but you'll have to come to times,
that's all. You'd better come back with me. Looks mighty un-
pleasant around here. What about it?"

"Not on your oilskin jacket! I'm good for a corking amount
yet."

"Well," said Con with a peculiar intonation, "It isn't our
custom to argue. I warn you, though, that your next visit is
going to be a confounded unpleasant one. Bad Jim and Tup-
per were all roiled up last night. I don't know what they con-
template, but you can count on them to make it devilish un-
pleasant. They whaled a poor Dutchman, last spring, till he
didn't have another breath coming."

"They'll never whale me." Pete Purdy's jaws clamped to-'
gether decisively. "Trust me for that, they'll never whale me.
You bring me some more firewood. I'm nearly out. There's a
half dozen or so dry saplings, by the creek yonder. If those fel-
lows had half the manners you've got, I'd walk out without a
whimper."

Con first examined the chain to make sure a large enough
pry to break it couldn't be inserted. But such an idea seemed
so ridiculous at sight of the short, massive links, pulled tightly
about the tree, that he laughed at himself and went to fetch
the saplings. He brought nearer a dozen.

"Have you got any notion when those fellows intend com-
ing up?" Purdy asked Con as he was preparing to leave.

"Not exactly. But I do know Jim and the boss — that's Buck
Leason — and Tupper, were discussing you last night at Old
Charlie's, and they worked themselves into a regular fit. They're
black. I shouldn't be surprised if they came up here tomorrow
morning, hell-bent and chuck full of deviltry."

"And you right in with them. Where are they now? Down
at Old Charlie's?"

"I left them there not an hour ago. It's a fact. And whether
I am in with them or not, I sympathize with you sincerely if
you stay here after tonight."

"I really believe you are ashamed of your gang. You ought
to be. But listen. I'm going to give those fellows down there
a genuine surprise. When you get back down, you tell them
I'm going to visit them. Tell them I'll be along tomorrow
morning about 2 a. m. and give them such a visit as they won't
forget in a week of Christmasses. Of course, if they think it's
too early, they can stay in bed. I'll want my horse, tell them,
and then I'm off to West Benton and the sheriff and my brother,
Sam. After that I'm coming back to stay."

Con looked puzzled and incredulous, but the best he could
do was to promise and ride away. It looked like a bluff, but if

THE SURPRISE GENUINE 41

it was, it was certainly a queer one. He could see no advantage
to be gained by bluffing. He indulged in several unfinished
laughs, on the way back to Old Charlie's — half-way laughs that
held amusement in them and yet vexation. The fact of the mat-
ter was that he hardly knew what to think.

IV

That night Pete Purdy's little Dot slept in her corner of
the west fence as usual. Con Redd and Bad Jim Crugget, the
dissolute Tupper and Old Charlie, and several other sheepmen,
were at the house. They stayed awake late, drinking and mak-
ing the walls ring with imprecations. But not a thing could
they make of Pete Purdy's enigmatic message, so they finally
blew the light out and went to bed.

At two o'clock all was dark and still as death. A "horning"
moon had just slipped behind the serrated desert hills to the
west. Only the shrivelled, dehydrated man of the desert, Old
Charlie, if he had chanced to lay awake in his bunk, would have
heard the low, strained "yap, yap" of the coyotes and known
that mischief was afoot. And looking forth from his little
window, he would have seen a sight fit to make his eyes pop.
But Old Charlie Edith snored evenly and slumbered, his tooth-
less mouth working in and out as he drew and exhaled breath,
and the outlandish object swerved and spun and meandered
nearer on the current of Beson Creek unobserved.

Whatever it was, it could easily have passed for the devil
on a raft. Its dark body and malevolent, glaring eye seemed
certainly a demon on fearful business bent. Awakened by its
ghastly halo, the horses bunched at the far sides of the corrals,
and stared at it in terrified fascination.

Nearer and nearer it approached, until the reflection of its
light could be seen in the water, and its grotesque, makeshift
construction became laughably evident. A raft of dry saplings
bound together with ragged strips of blanket was surmounted
by a glowing camp-stove, its whole top part red with the fierce
heat of smoldering coal.

Even as it passed the south corner of the corrals, Pete
Purdy's little Dot slept in the shadow of the west fence. But
when a sudden crescendo of crackling sounded in the windrow
of weeds just outside, she came to her feet with a bounce. Light
showed in the fence cracks. Flames licked above the boards.
Long tongues of fire went reaching up into the dark. Then all
was wild disorder — the roaring of burning weeds and fences, the
crashing of horses through wires and poles, the crazy shouts of
men!

When little Dot's mind came out of its bewilderment, she

42 IMPROVEMENT ERA

was clear of the yards and going at a clapping gallop towards
the eastern hills, the picture of her old home at West Benton
uppermost in her brain. And before noon tkat day she was
panting outside Sam Purdy's gate.

Sam scented trouble directly. He knew his methodical
brother Pete too well to suppose she had gotten away from him.
Inside of half an hour he had saddled a good horse and was rac-
ing away toward Beson Valley.

The fire was soon checked among the rambling corrals, but
the fury of the sheepmen was not checked. Lucky that the raft
was burnt and the stove buried among black piles of cinders in
the stream. In their bafflement and rage, if they had found
Purdy, it is hard to tell what they might have done. But so
patent was it that he had made good his threat and escaped,
they never once thought of riding up the canyon to look for
him.

And so Pete Purdy, bereft of blankets, firewood, stove and
coal, jumped up and down all day to keep warm. Just as the
evening shadows were beginning to creep along the wooded
canyon valley, his brother, Sam, arrived. Then a powerfully
driven cold-chisel ate through a link of the heavy handcuffs,
and he was free. He kept his homestead!

Vernon* Utah

The Gleaners

Ye emblems of Earth's happy, younger days,

When kings held sway o'er all the earth, then known,,

Why do you glean, nor cease, nor yet delay

That endless task which claims you for its own?

And yet, you bear a message in your song,
And we but read between each silent line:

"Glean on. The Master's summons comes ere long;
So, gather in your sheaves while yet there's time."

Take heed, weak flesh, lest, when the threshing's done,
You do not cry: "Lord let thy mercy fall

O'er my scant work; consider yet, I pray,
How short that day of gleaning was for all."

How short! and yet no burdensome complaint
Is echoed from the lips of workers here.

My soul, why shrink ye back with light so faint?
Glean on. Life's setting sun is drawing near.

Erma Pace

A Suspicion Allayed

A Thanksgiving Story Showing the Deception of Circumstantial

Evidence.

By Wendell Hammond

Ezra Pond dipped his hand again into the bucket, and
bringing forth another handful of grain, tossed it to the young
turkey cock which was feeding close to his feet.

"A fine young bird, that, Cyrus," he remarked to his old
friend, Cyrus Bassett, who had come from the far end of River-
view to spend the Fourth of July with him. "A fine bid he is.
Come here, Dan'el," he coaxed, stooping down to let the shim-
mering bronze colored turkey pick the wheat from his open
hand.

"I call him Dan'el Webster, because you know that Dan'el
Webster was a giant among men, as the books say it; and this
young fellow is purty near the biggest turkey, for his age, 1 ever
see," he explained to his companion, who was now critically ap-
praising the fowl.

"Yes, he is tol'able big, tol'able," admitted Cyrus, stroking
his grizzled beard. "But I've got one over to my place that could
just about step over yours, and he was only hatched out last
May-day."

"Maybe he just seems bigger, 'cause he ain't up agin Dan-
'el," replied Ezra in mitigation of the divergent opinions.

"No, sir, he is bigger — a lot bigger," boasted Mr. Bassett,
"and what's more, by Thanksgiving he's going to be the biggest
young turkey in the state, bar none — not even Dan'el Webster,
there."

"I'll tell you what I'll do, Cyrus. I'll run a race with you
to see who has the biggest turkey by the day before Thanks-
giving, and the one who loses has to give his turkey — or the
equal value in money to the winner," stipulated the confident
Mr. Pond.

"I hate to take such a mean advantage of you, Ezra, but if
you want to put your head in such a sack, don't blame me. Sure
I'll do it."

"You hear that, do you Dan'el?" he addressed his huge in-
telligent eyed pet which was now emitting quick little 'kouck,
kouck's in the hopes of more grain. "So, if you want two pieces
of bread instead of just one, ask for it, won't you Dan'el?"

44 IMPROVEMENT ERA

That evening after the visitor had departed for home, and
Ezra had watched Daniel Webster with his smaller brothers and
sisters fly up to the ridge of the buggy shed and settle down for
the night, he confidently viewed the greater bulk of his chosen
bird, and mused: "I hope it don't make him peeved when we
win, for Cyrus is a bit 'techy* sometimes."

As the summer drew on and each week saw Mr. Pond's
turkey increase it's lead in size over its brood mates, Ezra's
assurance grew accordingly — so much so that he often won-
dered what he had best do with his friend's turkey when it
should be his.

But if Ezra was reasonably certain that the prize would
come to him, Mr. Bassett, with a more confident turn of mind,
never let the slightest suspicion enter his head that his bird
might prove to be the smaller one. "Whyn't he call it
Stephen A. Douglas, instead of Dan'el Webster. If he is a
giant he's a little one all right enough, just like Douglas
was. If his turkey was stood up along side of mine it 'ud
look just like that picture of Douglas standing up by Abe
Lincoln."

When October's early frosts had made the grasshopper
and other insects of field and orchard a thing of the past,
which had been Daniel's main fare in his wide wanderings
over the countryside, his owner greatly increased his grain
rations. This soon gave plumpness to his huge frame, so that
by mid-October even a stranger would estimate his weight to
be quite close to twenty pounds, which for a young turkey
everyone admitted to be remarkable.

One late October day Ezra was placing the huge golden
pumpkins in piles among the rows of shocked corn in his
lower field when his little granddaughter, Marcia, breathless-
ly ran up to him stammering out: "Your — your — your — Dan-
iel's in the well!"

"Dan'el, who's in what well?"

"Dan'el Turkey the — I mean Daniel Webster, the tur-
(key's in the well, the old well what we don't use any more,
in the orchard!"

"Come on quick, Marcia," rasped Mr. Pond. "How did
it happen?"

"Well, you see he was sitting on the side of the well, and
I guess he wanted to fly across it, so he gave a big flap, and
he didn't make it, and he flopped right down the well,
splosh!"

When the two arrived at the place of the tragedy, Ezra
peered down into the thirty feet of obscurity, but could
neither see nor hear his rashly adventurous bird.

A SUSPICION ALLAYED 45

"Is he drowned, Mr. Pond?" asked little Thomas Orr, a
neighbor boy, who had been attracted by the excitement.

"I suppose there ain't much water — now I can see him,
with the light just right. He's got his head and wings above
water, so it can't be very deep."

"Tommy, how would you like to earn a quarter?" ques-
tioned Ezra, with a plan of rescue already formulated.
Thomas Orr's eyes gave the reply better than words could
have done, so Mr. Pond continued: "This old well has been
almost dry for years, that's why we dug the other one: and
I'm sure the water isn't over a foot and a half deep, so I'll
get the rope and buckets from the new well, and rig them
up here. Then I'll lower you down so's you can tie another
little rope around Dan'el; and then I'll h'ist you up, and
then the turkey. Do you think you can do it, Thomas?"

"Sure, I can do lots harder things than that," asserted
the boy.

The ropes and buckets were quickly assembled and in-
stalled in the old well. With one foot in a bucket, and hands
tightly grasping the big rope, the boy was lowered down to
the turkey, which was struggling about and splashing the
water in vain attempts to fly out of the deep hole.

"Say, le' me up! I'm right on top of him, and he's
drowndin' me," came echoing up from the cavernous depths.

"Did I let you down too far? How's that now? He
won't pick you; go right after him, Thomas."

No answer came up for some time, so Ezra judged that
the boy was having difficulty in securely tying around the
turkey the small clothes line rope which had been pressed
into service.

"Tie it around his breast and under each wing," Ezra
boomed down to the rescuer.

UA}\ right, I got 'im good now; pull away," came up the
well, in tones full of relief.

Mr. Pond pulled away as was directed, and in a moment
the dripping wet but smiling boy emerged from the well,
grasping in one hand the small rope which was to be used
in pulling up the almost submerged bird.

Cautiously the old man elevated the mud-bedraggled
fowl which, when placed upon dry land again, was a sorry
sight to behold. It wheezed, and sputtered, and coughed, and
shook it's sodden plumage; and could scarcely drag its mis-
erable body away from the scene of its near destruction.

"You aren't going to forget the quarter, are you, Mr.
Pond?" queried the rescuer, when he saw Ezra start after
the doleful bird to render it any help he could.

46 IMPROVEMENT ERA

"I suppose I was, Tom; but here it is." He flipped the
well earned coin to the boy, and shooed the dripping bird
into a coop to give it a chance to recover.

When Mr. Bassett was told some ten days later about the
turkey falling into the well, and that it hadn't eaten anything
for several days after, and wasn't yet as spry as it should be,
he drew his brows together and drawled: "I suppose Ezra
will be right glad of some excuse like that, so he can tell
what would have happened if Dan'el hadn't fallen down the
old hole."

It was true that even the optimistic and hopeful Mr.
Pond freely admitted Daniel had not been the same bird
after the accident as before. "But," he argued, consoling
himself at least, "there's almost a whole month yet, and
Dan'el's got powerful recuperatin' faculties, so I'm still glad
I put him in the race; besides," he hinted, "I believe Bas-
sett's turkey is terrible shy on bone and frame — though I
suppose he is purty fat."

Four days before Thanksgiving it was patently evident
that the enormous Daniel not only had recovered from his
unwelcome fall, but was now spry as any cricket, and put-
ting on flesh heavily and rapidly. His few days of semi-
fast had been a blessing in disguise for him, by giving his
gastronomic organs a well needed rest. That he was now in
wonderfully fine condition was proved from his bright irri-
descent colorings. The gorgeous coppery bronze sheen of
his thick feathers was admired by all who viewed him.

On the morning, just three days before Thanksgiving,
Mr. Bassett went out to the barnyard to do his morning
chores, and among other things to scatter some grain to his
turkeys. He had been very careful in feeding his birds, es-
pecially the monstrous one with which he was so sure of
winning. He had given them just as much as he believed
they could eat without becoming sick, for he knew wherein
a turkey is different from a chicken: a chicken may cram
and gorge its craw tight full of corn or other grain, without
the slightest ill effect, but for a turkey, in its still half-wild
state, to over-eat in this way means weeks of sickness, usu-
ally ending in death.

So when Mr. Bassett found the granary door open and a
half dozen turkeys within, his heart stopped a few beats.
Upon entering, his worst fears were found to be indisputably
correct: the birds had been gorging for a long time upon
the shelled corn, and were now totally satisfied, with craws
extended, showing the enormous amount that each had
gobbled up.

A SUSPICION ALLAYED 47

Mr. Bassett quickly caught his ponderous bird, and
scaring the others outside, took the fat fellow to a coop so
that he could eat no more that day.

By the time evening came, it was clearly evident that
the turkey would not have eaten the most tempting morsel
its owner might have offered it — it was listlessly, mopingly
sick. The next day it was the same only visibly worse, yet
it managed to pick up a few grains of wheat which was
thrown to it by the disgusted Cyrus. "The bottom's dropped
out now, for sure!" he tersely summed up the whole situa-
tion.

"But," he pondered, "how in the tarnation could that
granary door have got opened? I remember just as well as
anything of putting that wooden peg in the door hasp, and
it couldn't get out itself. But it was out, and on the ground
this morning."

"I wonder — " he reflected, "I don't think Ezra — no, of
course, he wouldn't; but he does want to win mighty bad,
and he knows what too much corn '11 do to a turkey."

Several times that day he caught himself wondering who
could have opened the door. As his wife was the only other
person at home, and he knew she had not been into any of
the outbuildings for months, he was forced to conclude that
it had been deliberately done by someone. "There wasn't
anything taken, and who would just want to open the door
— but I ought to know he wouldn't do it, still — "

He would soon have disciplined his accusing thoughts
about his friend had not Chester Glover met him that after-
noon at the postoffice, and among stray bits of conversation
said: "I suppose Ezrie Pond dropped in to see you last night
when he was by here. I was out a little after dark and seie
him drive by."

"No, he didn't; I didn't know he was over this way,*'
was the rejoinder of a man who had arrived at an unshakable,
displeasing conclusion.

On the day before Thanksgiving Ezra drove over to Mr.
Bassett's with Daniel Webster, accompanied by Leslie Reece,
who was to see that both birds were fairly weighed. They
were met at the front gate by Cyrus, who, after indifferently
greeting them remarked: "My turkey's a leetle sick, but
we'll weigh him just the same.'

"Sick? He surely is," assented the mutual friend when
they had been taken to the fowl's temporary hospital. "Look
at that puffy, dark head. He's got blackhead; that's what
he's got. And you know what that means. Why, you can't
eat that bird if he should win, Mr. Bassett!"

48 IMPROVEMENT ERA

"Yes, maybe you're right; but if he weighs the most I
win anyway, even though he is sick and has lost two or three
pounds in the last few days."

"There, I said so," breathed the too confident Cyrus;
"Ezra, you can't come up to that with your Stephen A. Doug-
las, even if someone did almost do for my turkey," he add-
ed with hidden meaning, as his bird was weighed.

Daniel's huge bulk was soon made ready for the test,
and as he rapidly lowered the needle down the numbering
scale Ezra shouted: "Whoop! She's past it! She's past it!
Dan'el's won, sure enough!"

The scale registered just twenty-seven pounds.

"That's right, all right, boys," was the referee's official
utterance.

"Well, Ezra, I suppose I know you'll choose to take the
money instead of this wreck," glumly choked out Mr. Bas-
sett, holding up his moribund fowl.

"Yes, I'll have to do that; besides, I know exactly who
I've got to give it to. Little Thomas Orr said he just ruined
his pants down the old, muddy well; and he'll have to have
another pair. He said he wouldn't go down another well if
General Pershing himself was stuck down there, for any
quarter, so that's where the money goes to."

"Anyway, Cyrus, you come over with your wife to our
place tomorrow and see how much better mother can cook
a turkey than I can raise one. We'll be pleased to have you."

"Thanks, Ezra, but I think we'll stay right — "

"Look at that colt," interrupted the referee, pointing to
one of Mr. Bassett's two-year-old fillies that were permitted
the run of the yard. "She's trying to open your granary
door — there, she's got the peg out!"

Cyrus B assert turned and saw the animal just as it nuz-
zled the door open with its sensitive lips, and then stood half
undecided to enter or not.

"Ezra, then it wasn't — sure, Ezra, we'll be right glad to
come over to your place tomorrow for the whole day, only
don't you dast to kill Dan'el Webster for Thanksgiving, for
he's the whoppinest turkey I ever did see. He sure is!"
Wood's Cross, Utah

They iVppreciate the "Era'

"1 take great delight in the Improvement Era, each month. It is a
great source of information to any who will read, and especially to me, a
missionary." — M. Grant Prisbrey, Halifax, England.

"We are receiving the Improvement Era regularly, and wish to voice our
appreciation for this splendid magazine. — R. Glen Call, E. Odell Peterson,
Missionaries, Tucson, Arizona.

Sources of Joy and Factors of Happiness

A Study for the Advanced Senior Classes of M. I. A., 1921-22

By Dr. George H. Brimhall

Lesson VII. — Ideality

Ideality, in this discussion, shall
mean the power of creating ideals
and the process of working towards
them.

Out of an almost infinite number
of aspects of a great subject a few
have been selected for presentation
in this lesson. No attempt has
been made in any instance to ex-
haust a topic.

Ideality is the head light of hu-
man existence: it is created, pro-
jected, and followed by the indi-
vidual and the group. It is the
child of progress leading its par-
ent. If necessity is the mother of
invention, ideality is the father of
progress.

Ideality is the measure of intelli-
gence; the higher the ideality the
higher the intelligence, and the
lower the ideality the lower the in-
telligence. The higher the intelli-
gence the greater the capacity for
joy, and the higher the things to
be enjoyed.

Ideality and Instinct. — Animals
reach their completeness in in-
stinct entirely through inherit-
ance, and they arrive at their per-
fection in action through instinct
or inherited ability.

The completeness of man's exist-
ence is subject to the modification
of ideality, and progressive per-
fection of his ability depends for

the more part, if not entirely, upon
bis ideality. The bee has neither
contemplation nor ambition in the
direction of cell building or honey
gathering; he simply follows his
instinct or impulse leading to a
wise end, to perfection, without
the power either to contemplate or
enjoy that perfection. Through
instinct birds master the air and
navigate the water. Man also does
many things through instinct; he
walks by instinct, he speaks in-
stinctively, but, this walking and
speaking is added to through ideal-
ity.

Ideality enters into walking
when we add to it poise and dig-
nity of attitude and grace of
movement. There are people, how-
ever, who are so lacking in ideal-
ity of attitude and action that they
never learn how to stand properly
or sit down gracefully.

We instinctively eat, nut the pro-
cesses of feeding one's self in order
to rise above the gratification of
the animal reaches into the realm
of higher happiness. Ideality sup-
plements our feeding processes
with table manners, which lift the
individual and the group into a
field of aesthetic enjoyment.

Through ideality man has mas-
tery over the elements, an ever
progressing mastery. Ideality is

50

IMPROVEMENT ERA

the day-dream land of perfection,
ideality substitutes choice for
chance. Ideality never waits for
things to happen, it plans for them
to happen.

Ethics and Ideality. — The qual-
ity of the individual coming down
the road to meet us depends upon
our ideality, that person in time
becomes a mental fact. It is the
"I" of today that shall become the
"Me" of tomorrow. "I" must meet
this "Me." The "Me" I meet will
never be better than the "I" which
I send forward. In making the "I"
one must do more than work to a
pattern.

The ambition to become just
like someone else is at best not
superior ideality. This ideality is
only second grade. High grade
character ideality has behind it an
acquaintance with one's better self,
and a determination to carry over
into habit the saying of that illus-
trious educator, Doctor Maeser,
"Be yourself, your better self."

The simple attempt to character-
ize one's better self, which can be
done only through our ideality, is
a source of satisfaction. It is a joy
for one to make an inventory of
his good desires.

Ideality and Marriage. — The
mating instinct is responsible for
more marriages than any other
factor that leads to marriage; yet
the stream of joy coming from love
unions may be deepened and en-
larged by the introduction of ideal-
ity into courtship and marriage.
On the one hand, the contempla-
tion of what an ideal lover should
be, such as he would like for a
prospective brother-in-law, and on
the other hand the contemplation

of an ideal sweetheart, such as she
would desire for a prospective
sister-in-law, would bring court-
ship to an altitude where the dust
of iniquity never reaches.

This field of ideality will lead
over into the field of consistency
where the contemplation of un-
equal yoking is conspicuous for
its absence. The college woman,
whose choice of a husband proved
something of a surprise to her as-
sociates, met their amazement with
the remark, "I am choosing for
my children as well as for myself."
She gave evidence of a consistency
in ideality that carried over as a
source of joy unknown except
through the parentage of high-
grade offspring. If it be true that
great men have superior mothers,
then the placing of high ideality
into the choosing of a wife or a
husband needs no argument.

It has frequently been said that
great women have great fathers
and great men great mothers.
Whatever operates towards the
improvement of the race, either
through heredity, environment, or
education, contributes in the high-
est sense, both as a source of joy
and a factor of happiness, and it
seems that ideality in mating does
its full share.

Ideality and Religion. — "Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your
Father in heaven is perfect." This
does not mean a standstill perfec-
tion according to "Mormon" doc-
trine. All perfection is progres-
sive. When we sing, "Thus on
to eternal perfection, the honest
and faithful will go," we mean thus
on to progressive perfection. The
religion, the doctrines of which

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS

51

make room for the exercise of trie
highest ideality, is, at least, psy-
chologically the best. As that
which is most in harmony with
the nature of man, and most pro-
ductive of conditions of happiness
for man is most desirable by the
better self of man, it would follow
that the religion which provides
for man's becoming like God is the
best for the man.

The idealizing of ideality in our
every day religious life is a process
of heaven-making. It is a process
of spiritual habit-making. One's
religious character is measured by
one's religious ideality and one's
spiritual activity crystallized into
habit.

One may contribute to one's
spiritual strength, which is always
a source of joy, by listing the hab-
its which constitute his individual
spirituality, and the group habits
which constitute the family spirit-
uality. These should be measured
by the desired spiritual condition
which his ideality has created.

Problems.

1. What will the streets of Salt Lake
City and those of Boston say concerning
the ideality of the first settlers?

2. Describe an ideal atttitude at the
table.

3. How is the following scriptural ad-
monition related to the development of
ideality: "Let your apparel be the
workmanship of your own hands"?

4. From a large number of answers to
the question: "What is ideal vocational
success?" the following was selected, as
the best: "Doing so well what one likes
to do, that he has no need to do any-
thing else to make a living."

5. Wherein is ideality essentially indis-
pensable to such a 'success?

6. Wherein does ideality provide for
progressive perfection?

7. What is the distinction between
completion and perfection? To which
one of them isjideality a stranger and
to which one is it a constant companion?

8. What reason had the great artist to
weep when he had finished a painting 80
perfect that neither he nor any of his
fellow artists could see how it might be
improved?

9. How will good table manners add
to the joy of the individual and society.

10. Wherein is your better self not
completely characterized in the follow-
ing: "My better self is sincere, kind,
courteous, prompt, patient, industri-
ous, temperate, generous, optimistic,
clean, courageous."

11. Discuss the prospective happiness
resulting from the mating of persons with
high ideals. What are the probable re-
sults of the marriage union?

12. Name the spiritual habits which
would measure up to your religious
ideality, (a) for the individual, (b) for
the family.

Lesson VIII. — Work.

It must be understood that
"work" in this lesson shall mean
aimful activity, physical, intellec-
tual, ethical, or spiritual.

Theological Aspect. — And unto Adam
he said, "Because thou hast hearkened
unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree, of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed
is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy

life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field; in the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread."

The rebound of the Fall lifted
Adam from the position of a care-
taker to that of a garden-maker;
it was a promotion. In the ready-
made heaven of Eden he played
upon a self-tuned harp of life. It
was enjoyment without advance-

52

IMPROVEMENT ERA

ment. The jar, a divinely planned
circumstance, unstrung that harp
and threw Adam from the position
of a mere performer to that of a
composer: the Fall was upward.
Adam was not cursed but blessed
with work. It was the earth that
was cursed that he might have
work. Work that was something
more than employment, work di-
vine, the work of bringing order
out of chaos in all the kingdoms
of earth life, vegetable, animal
and man.

A weed is but a plant out of
place. Wheat becomes weeds when
it interferes with the growth of
beets. Man was to have work.
Work into which optimistic ideal-
ity could enter, work sustained by
intention as well as by impulse,
work in which initiative doubles
the joy of achievement, work that
makes of man more than a servant
of divinity, more than a friend of
God, a partner with God for the
salvation of the one and the glory
of the other, the eternal, progress-
ive joy of both.

The ignorance of the under*
standing of God's purposes, mis-
interpretation of his word, led to
and has perpetuated the two er-
rors of the ages: first, thinking
and speaking of work as a curse,
and, second, working to get out of
work.

Social Aspect. — Work is a good
thing to have finished, but a better
thing to be doing. The happiness
of future salvation and the joys of
exaltation are to be measured by
standards of work, but there is a
happiness here and now, happiness
constantly coming through work-

ing towards the expected reward
in the hereafter; and just to the
extent that the "now" is a part of
eternity, this stream of present joy
is a part of eternal happiness. It
may be truly said of ideal working
conditions, "Once a source of joy,
always a source of joy."

Work is thrice blessed ; it blesses
in the planning, it blesses in the
process, and it blesses the product.

There is not standing room in
the Church of Christ for the indo-
lent; the Kigdom of God is a king-
dom of industry.

Community Aspect. — Unem-
ployment is an open grave of com-
munity progress, group indolence
is the camp fire of congregating
crime. Everybody busy spells uni-
versal prosperity. Out of work,
from a community point of view,
means in danger. Public senti-
ment that tolerates making a living
by hook or crook furnishes a cul-
ture bed for future criminals.

The gabbling cobbler who led
men about the streets to wear out
their shoes and get himself into
more work showed a method in
his madness by which a street-
corner loafer might profit.

Contributions to the Individual.
— The great apostle of work,
Thomas Carry le, says:

"There is a perennial nobleness and
even sacredness in work. Were he nev-
er so benighted, forgetful of his high
calling, there is always hope in a man
that actually and earnestly works.
Blessed is he who has found his work.
. . . All true work is sacred. Labor, wide
as the earth, has its summit in heaven.
Sweat of the brow, and up from that to
sweat of the brain, sweat of the heart
which includes all Kepler's calculations,

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS

53

Newton's meditations, all science, all
spoken epics, all acted heroism, mar-
tyrdoms— up to that 'agony of bloody
sweat' which all men have called divine,
0 brother, if this is not 'worship' then I
say the more pity for worship for this
is the noblest thing yet discovered under
God's sky."

Work is the greatest refuge for
those driven by despair; it is a
field of forgetfulness of those
things we would not remember;
it is the prime minister of refor-
mation, working changes with its
magic touch which never can be
wrought by the harsh hand of
pains and penalties.

Work is the tryst-tree of ideality
and action, where mind and matter
meet in a fulness of joy. Work
demands sincerity, it develops the
duty-doing power, it furnishes the
conditions for fortitude. Loyalty
to labor bespeaks fidelity to
friends.

Love for one's labor and pride
in its products, these two things
mark nature's noblemen. To do
little means to grow little, to com-
plete one's task and then more is
a process of self-promotion. Vol-
untary, over-time service is a
prophecy of special recognition;
it is a characteristic of superin-
tendency. The manager of a large
business, on being asked why he
promoted a certain young person
over many of senior service, said,
"She promoted herself!"

Work will win and winning is
both a large source of joy and a
strong factor of happiness. Work
blesses the worker~and the worked
for.

References

Improvement Era, Vol. 9, n. 694; 11: p.
502, and especially Vol. 18~ "A Song of

Triumph," p. 565 ; also Markham's, "The
Man With the Hoe."

Problems.

1. What did God do with the earth in
order to bless Adam with the opportunity
for progressive occupation?

2. Out of which comes the most con-
stant stream of joy: achieving or
achievement?

3. Of what phase of work as a source
of joy is the following an illustration:
A person on her death bed said, "I am
so glad that I have done what Temple
work I have."

4. What is the word "work" to mean in
this lesson?

5. Distinguish between service and
servitude.

6. Discuss this problem: To unduly
shorten the work-day means to lessen
the stream of human happiness.

7. Wherein is an attitude against work
anti-Christian?

8. What international condition exists
today illustrative of the Shakespearian
saying "Borrowing dulls the edge of
husbandry?"

9. What are the dangers of unemploy-
ment in communities?

10. What is the cost in the loss of pro-
ductiveness per day for the maintenance
for four million unemployed workmen?

11. How is the happiness of a nation
affected by this condition in other ways
than the financial loss?

12. In what other ways than want does
unemployment interfere with the happi-
ness of the community?

13. In what way do street-corner loaf-
ers adversely advertise the community?

14. On the ground of providing for
community happiness, justify the penaliz-
ing of vagrancy.

15.— Wherein is it impossible to cheat
an employer without cheating one's self?

16. Discuss work becoming drudgery
(a) through an aversion in atttitude, (b)
through excessiveness of task.

T7. Which idea contributes most to the
happiness of the race: There is enough
for everybody to have, or there is enough
for everybody to do?

54

IMPROVEMENT ERA

Lesson IX. — Leisure.

Introduction. — Leisure is a time
at one's disposal to do what he
pleases. Leisure activities are
those engaged in when we have
nothing to do. Leisure is pass time
or time to be passed in following
our inclinations. Labor has charge
of our vocations, but leisure guides
our avocations. Leisure time is
not measured by the kitchen
clock, not by the husiness man's
chronometer; it is registered by the
sun dial of recreation.

Leisure is the excursion element
of the journey of life. Ball playing
to Babe Ruth is work; duty calls
him to the bat. To the unpaifl
player a ball game is leisure. To
the dancing master the ball room
is a field of labor, to the public it
is a place of recreation, he must be
there, they may be there; he has
joy in his work, and happiness
comes from his efforts in the form
of satisfaction of achievement
and in his financial compensation.
They enjoy the acting; the motive
of results is not at all associated
with their performances; his is the
operation of putting in time, theirs
of passing time, yet he and they
nay dance together.

The Necessity of Leisure. — With-
out leisure service may become
servitude and duty degenerate
into drudgery.

"Alas, for maiden, alas for judge,

For rich repiner and household drudge."

Leisure ofttimes affords the only
opportunity for culture. In his
chapter on chosrng a vocation, the
cui'ior of the Man of Tomorrow,
points out the importance of con-
sidering whether the vocation will

afford the necessary leisure or not.
The work hours, however full of
enjoyment they may be, rarely, if
ever, afford time for the contem-
plation that is too frequently ab-
sent from the lives of the masses.

The courtesy demanded at the
counter has not that heart throb
quality which is made in the social
circle during leisure hours. Leisure
makes possible the avocation
which often supersedes the voca-
tion; and exceeds it in the de-
velopment of efficiency, and in
giving joy to the worker. It so
frequently happens that one's apti-
tude is found in leisure hours. It
was leisure that delivered Franklin
from the printer's devil and per-
mitted him to play with the giant
Electricity much to the joy of the
world.

Without leisure for the youth
William Cullen Bryant, no Thana-
topsis would have come to us. Had
the Boy of Nazareth been kept at
the carpenter's bench without res-
pite, except to eat and sleep, his
scriptural knowledge would not
have astounded the theologians at
the temple.

Leisure provides for physical re-
laxation. It has been well and
truly said that change is rest, and
one of the most recuperative forms
of change is that from work to
play, "My bow strung up too long
will not shoot strong," said the In-
dian hunter, when asked why he
unstrung his bow whenever he sat
down to rest while hunting. He
may have been a savage but less of
a simpleton than many an over-
worked, over self-tasked civilian.

It is a matter of common knowl-

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS

55

edge that exhaustion deflates or
flattens the cells of the body. Leis-
ure given to rest inflates by recu-
peration the entire physical make
up. Permitting even duty to drive
unheedingly past the danger sig-
nals of weariness, is like auto
speeding with flat tires, rapid ruin
is the result. Leisure gi\en to dis-
sipation becomes a drug either over
exciting or stupefying. A survey
reaching over several years of close
observation indicated the profit-
ableness of paying miners seven
days' wages for six days' work; pro-
vided, they would rest physically
and avoid all forms of dissipation
on the seventh day.

Employers, by sad experience,
are forced to the conclusion thai a
night out by the average employe is
money out to the business, even
though the worker may be "John-
nie on the spot," as to the hours
put in the next day.

Leisure taken from duly is like
the stolen fox hidden under the
cloak of the Spartan youth, de-
vouring the vitals of the thief. No
one can enjoy an outing for an
hour with the consciousness of hav-
ing prematurely left his post of
duty. His pleasure — fruit picked
before its time is bitter.

Leisure at the round table stimu-
lates the student, improves the citi-
zen, and shapes the statesman. See
Doc. and Cov. 88: 78-79.

Leisure at the card table is a
time-killer. Even the idler, for
whom there is no place in Zion,
permits the moments to die peace-
fully, while the card player kills
them outright. Brigham Young,
the pioneer leader and prophet of
the Lord, declared when card play-
ing was introduced as a camp-fire

pastime, that he "would not lead
a card-playing people."

Leisure in the library lifts the lid
of the treasure box of centuries,
and gives us access to the thought-
jewels of the ages. Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes addressed the li-
brarians as, "Sexton's of those al-
coved tombs where men in leathern
cerements lie."

Leisure in the gossip circle is the
whetstone to sharpen the scissors of
slander with which reputations are
riddled.

"There's so much bad in the best of us,
And so much good in tne worst of us,
That it doesn't behoove any of us,
To talk about the rest of us."

Leisure devoted to chariiy per-
forms miracles at which mercy
smiles, and justice nods approval.
All who know him love the man
who, when a youth, devoted holi-
day hours to writing comfort c^.rds
for the old folks of his community.
The joy that came to him through
his leisure-time efforts is still a
joy; it is a part of his life's glory.

Leisure as a sacrifice to labor in
distress is a pathfinder for promo-
tion. When necessity calls for
overtime, and leisure is generously
given, to lend a hand, labor finds a
friend whom it lifts toward the
top. An ounce of voluntary aid
has more weight on the scales of
merit than has a pound of demand-
ed help, and leisure then makes
generosity of time possible, and
generosity is one of joy's purest
fountains.

Leisure given to loafing, adver-
tises the sluggard, hurts his rela-
tives, and hinders his community.
There are few things, if any, that
are more detrimental to a town

56

IMPROVEMENT ERA

than groups of men gathered on
the street corners to pass the time
away. To such, home is a place
to go when they can't go anywhere
else. While one can not spend leis-
ure in the library, at the round
table, or a ball room where pro-
priety prevails, without being made
brighter and better, he can no more
expect to come out of an unselect
movie or a jazz ball-room without
being mentally smeared, than he
may hope to take a bath in a sewer
and come out physically clean.

Leisure is to life what dessert is
to eating, over indulgence in either
terminates with loss of the power
to enjoy. The pleasure hunter is
always on a rainbow chase. Who-
ever makes leisure the object of life
has turned his back on labor and
taken up the trail of the "human
being with nothing to do," at the
end of which waits the dragon dis-
appointment.

Leisure with the camping kit,
leads us into "God's first temples,"
puts mountain tops under our feet,
holds over us the starry canopy
that Abraham studied, gives us the
laughter of rills, lets us hear the
whisper of fragrance-laden breezes,
and awakens within us the echo of
the song of the soul, "Nearer, my
God, to Thee." Mountain hiking
means in more than one sense liv-
ing the higher life. Years ago the
organizer of the Young Men's Mu-
tual Improvement Association, Ju-
nius F. Wells, inspiringly uttered
these words, "Every young man
should stand on some mountain
peak once a year."

When we look back through his-
tory we see that nations have gone
wrong through making leisure a

great objective; they have main-
tained systems of slavery that some
class might surfeit itself in pastime.
The gladiatorial combats of Rome
and the bull fights of Mexico are
illustrative of the extent to which
communities may go with degener-
ate pastimes. It needs no argument
to show the necessity of a constant
struggle of the best in society, for
temperance in leisure and decency
in its employment.

The "sane" fourth of July move-
ment is a sample of what may be
done towards lifting the leisure of
a nation above danger. The taboo
of evil is not to be derided as a
reformatory force. The "not-do"
is indispensable to progress, but
stronger still is the potency of sup-
plying the good. Substitution is
the most effective means of elim-
inating evil. Keep the good com-
ing with a speed that shall consume
the leisure moments as they come,
and our pastime will become in
the highest sense good times.

Leisure and the Abuse of Indus-
tries.— The mad rush for pastime is
turning our industries away from
the native born into the hands of
the emigrant. Young America
may say, "I won't work," the for-
eigner is answering him, "I will
work," and an inescapable destiny
is putting our farms, stores, restau-
rants, and many other enterprises
into the hands of the foreigner who
will soon be in a position to say to
the native prodigal, "You would
not work for yourself, now you
must work for me."

Leisure and the Sabbath Day. —
Sunday is the Lord's day. When

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS

57

we recite, "Six days shalt thou la-
bor, and do all thy work," let
special emphasis be placed on the
word, "thy," and then perhaps we
may get the import of the sen-
tence: "The seventh is the Sab-
bath of the Lord thy God," When
we remember how that on the first
day of the week the promise of a
resurrection became a reality, we
may understand why it is with
great propriety called the "Lord's
day," a day for which he has made
a program of procedure, the car-
rying out of which, by the individ-
ual and the community, will pro-
tect both from degeneracy, and
cause both to make progress with a
maximum of speed and a minimum
of discomfort. Sunday is not a day
to do as I please, but to do as God
pleases. And as to his pleasure,
the Doctrine and Covenants, 59: 9
and 68:28 and Gospel Doctrine,
pages 304, 305, are cited.

Questions and Problems.

1. Define leisure.

2. Illustrate the distinction between
leisure activities and labor.

3. Show the relation between avoca-
tion and leisure.

4. What comes to us through leisure
that we can not get any other way?

5. Name some of the abuses of leisure.

6. Why is it important that employers
should know the favorite pastimes of
their employes?

7. What has the prevailing pastime
occupation of a community to do with
the price of real estate and house rent?

8. What in your opinion are proper
Sabbath day activities?

9. What activities are improper?

10. Show how leisure is spoiled by
taking for it time that belongs to other
things.

11. What would happen to the world if
everybody let the love of leisure lead
them?

12. Under what conditions is leisure
a source of joy and a factor of happi-
ness?

13. Discuss the responsibility assumed
by deferring or refusing to rear a family,
because the care of children interferes
with the leisure of parents.

Achievement

Raymond, Canada

In the humdrum and stress of existence,

Have you clung to the dreams of your youth:

When a star in the distance you sighted,
Shining forth with the glory of truth?

You've decided your hopes are all futile,
Your ambitions you placed far too high,

That the good things of Life are not for you;
In the dust do your dreams now all lie?

God ne'er mocked mortal man with desires,
Which were more than his pow'r to gain;

Ah, beware lest you're lashed with the knowledge,
'Twas small faith that prevented your gain;

Ah yes, this is a world of achievement,

There's no time to let slip idly by,
And still trust in yourself and your Maker,

Who'll guard o'er you with unfailing eye.

Helen Kimball Orgill

Conversion and Testimony of the Late
President C. N. Lund*

Selected front his Journal by his Son, C. N. Lund, Jr

While the members of our family were quietly pursuing
their humble course in life, satisfied with their lot, and never
daring to hope or dream of anything better, either for them-
selves or for their children after them, and satisfying, as best
they could, the cravings of their spiritual natures by reading
the Lutheran prayer book at home, and once in a while at-
tending church, a little circumstance transpired which was
destined to change the future course of our lives and scatter
cu:; family over two continents and affect our posterity yet
unborn.

It was on a pleasant day in the month of April, 1857, at
the home where I was born. My father was working out, my
mother was alone at home with three little boys, the young-
est four years, and the eldest, myself, 11 years. A man
knocked at the door. My mother bade him come in, and
he introduced himself as a "Mormon'1 missionary. His name
we never learned. He called but once. He told us the won-
derful story of how God had again revealed himseF from
heaven and had raised up a prophet in America by the name
of Joseph Smith. This sounded very, very strange to my
mother. She said she could not understand how that could
be true when the Bible, as she understood it, stated that if any-
one should pretend to have received new revelation we should
by no means pay any attention to him, or place any confi-
dence in it. He read from the Bible and conversed with us
for some time, explaining the principles of the gospel, and
the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ upon earth.
When he left, I remember my mother was so impresse 1 that
she lemarked, "I believe what that man said is true.'' There
the Feed was sown which has since borne so much fruit.

But there was a struggle at hand. "Mormonism" was
never heard of before in that part of Denmark. The people

*C. N. Lund, for many years president of the North Sanpete stake
of Zion, and one time President of the Scandinavian Mission, and well
known among the people of the "West as a sterling character, died May
7, 1921.— Editors.

CONVERSION OF PRESIDENT C. N. LUND 59

went nearly wild with excitement. Opposition arose from
within and from without. Awful tales were told about the
"Mormons," and about Utah. Courage was necessary to break
the ice and be the pioneers in so unpopular a cause. Father
hesitated, brothers held back, mother investigated and rea-
soned with other elders. The next elder to come in was Mads
Anderson, of Mt. Pleasant. He conversed with the family all
one night, but it seemed he could not overcome the darkness,
until with vigor and loud voice he commanded the devil to
leave the home. Immediately after, my mother said she was
ready to be baptized. So at the breaking of day on June 21,
1857, she went into the waters of baptism and was confirmed
a member of the Church.

At this time I was between eleven and twelve years of
age and was working out and had not been home much when
the elders had been at our home. I was not surrounded by
the best influences where I worked, and from what I had
been told I was very unfavorably impressed about "Mormon-
ism." I felt indignant at what my mother had done, and be-
lieved that she had brought disgrace upon our family. A
month or so had passed since she had joined the unpopular
sect, and my father and older brother had followed her ex-
ample. So I determined I would go home for a visit and
give them to understand that I thought they had acted very
foolishly and brought trouble and disgrace upon their chil-
dren as well as themselves. I went home thus determined,
but I shall never forget that meeting with my sainted mother.
After fifty years the picture of that occasion is still vivid on
my memory as when a boy of twelve. Clad in her simple
apparel, I remember yet the patches on her dress, she ap-
peared to me a changed woman. There seemed to be a
peaceful, gentle and holy influence, or expression beaming
from her countenance, and when she spoke her words were
filled with love and kindness. This completely overcame me.
I could not account for it. I marveled. But, of course, I
soon knew, and know far better now, that it was the result
of obedience to the gospel and the influence of the Holy
Spirit which had been imparted to her. I forgot to give vent
to my former feelings of regret for what she had done. My
father was also there and was happy for what he had re-
ceived. But, though changed, I was not yet converted.

On the last of November, 1857, as I was again going home
from the place where I worked, I met on the road two of my
brothers, one older, one younger, who both believed the gos-
pel. We had a conversation about it there on the road, and
even though I had finally determined that I would have

60 IMPROVEMENT ERA

nothing to do with this unpopular sect, it was while standing
there on the highway, conversing and arguing, that I felt
plainly the Spirit of God coming over me, and an impression
or testimony came to me that the gospel was true and that I
ought to obey it. I felt like the disciples say they did when
Jesus spoke to them by the way, "our hearts burned within
us." I went home, and to the great joy of my mother, I told
her that I now felt that what she had done was right, and
that I would soon follow her example. So, on a cold and
stormy evening, March 20, 1858, Elder Hans P. Iversen led
me into the waters of baptism in the same spot where my
mother had been baptized. I knew but little of the gospel
at that time, but I felt that I had done right, and it was aln
easy matter for me to leave off the little habits I had formed
in my associations with rough men where I had worked, and
be a better boy.

A short time after my baptism, I dreamed one night I
was standing at the place where I was baptized and I saw
the Savior coming in the clouds of heaven, and as I looked
at him I saw him wave his hand, and then the heavens rolled
together like a scroll. This dream impressed me that what
I had done was approved of the Lord.

I did not then know all that the gospel is and what it will
do for people, but in fifty years I have learned much. From
the hour of receiving it, I have never doubted nor wavered,
and bear testimony today to its wonderful truth and saving
power.
Mt. Pleasant, Utah.

Wilt Thou Me Guide?

Wilt Thou me guide?

The evening shadows deeper grow;
Though death with us abide,

Let us Thy gracious mercy know.

Wilt Thou me guide?

Though sorrows tear my aching heart;
Whatever fate may us betide,

Let not Thy peace from us depart.

Wilt Thou me guide?

Though angry billows surge and roar;
From Thee we cannot hide,

Be Thou with us forevermore.

Carrie Tanner

Lest We Forget

I. — John Brown

By Seymour B. Young, President of the First Council of Seventy.

There are other virtues than cheerfulness and a smiling
countenance; one of these is stamina; another, greater still,
is loyalty.

Early in the ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith he
predicted the Civil War. The following is a revelation from
the Lord, recorded in section 87 of the Doctrine and Cove-
nants:

Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come
to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventu-
ally terminate in the death and misery of many souls.

The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations,
beginning at that place;

For behold the Southern States shall be divided against the North-
ern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the
nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon
other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and
then war shall be poured out upon all nations.

And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against
their masters, who shall be marshalled and disciplined for war.

Some of the above predictions were literally fulfilled
during the late Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was chosen
the standard-bearer to save the Union, and dining the great
struggle of the Civil War, on the 12th day of August, 1862,
he issued his proclamation of freedom for the slaves. Their
emancipation dated from January 1, 1863. This prepared
a way for the fulfilment of that portion of the prophecy by
the Prophet Joseph Smith, stating that slaves should be mar-
shalled and disciplined for war, contending against their
former masters. Several years subsequent to this prophecy,
however, Joseph Smith advised, with a view of preventing
the war, that the Government purchase the slaves of the
South, paying the owners from moneys obtained by the sale
of the public lands, thus giving freedom to the slaves, and
remuneration to the slave holder for his property. He hoped
by this means to maintain peace between the North and the
South.

Emerson, a few years later, made a similar proposition,

62 IMPROVEMENT ERA

looking to the settlement of the slave question, but neither
were heeded by the ruling power of the nation. Hence, no
preparation was made for the permanent freedom of the
slaves, until the Civil War incidentally brought about their
emancipation. The fact was that bleeding Kansas and the Mis-
souri Compromise, discussed in the daily press and newspapers,
during the decade between 1850 and 1860, had become
constant sources of irritation between the slave owners
of the South and the non-slave holders of the North.
Notwithstanding the wise suggestions of prudent men, look-
ing to the prevention of trouble over the slave question, the
flame of discord and hatred continued to be fanned until it
burst into the fierce and fiery struggle between the North
and the South, the latter aiming at the destruction of the
Union, while the former determined to preserve it at any
cost. We need only refer to the late world war for the ful-
filment of the prophet's words, "and thus war shall be poured
out upon all nations."

Early in the year 1859, John Brown, a declared apostle
of Abolitionism, gathered around him a company of sixteen
devoted followers, and marched to Harper's Ferry, in old
Virginia, and captured the United States Armory, located
at that place, and sent out invitations to the black slaves of
the South to come and join his standard, at the Armory,
there to be supplied with arms and ammunition, and thus
be made ready to fight for their freedom.

The attack upon the Armory and its capture was sudden
and unexpected, but as soon as Governor Wise learned of
conditions, he ordered out the state militia, and a company
sufficiently large was marched to Harper's Ferry, and John
Brown and his small party of followers were made prisoners
without the firing of a gun, or the shedding of blood. Their
trial and conviction resulted in the sentencing and execution
of John Brown, three of his sons and two of his sons-in-law,
while the other members of his company, eleven in all, after
proper examination were set at liberty, on the plea that they
followed John Brown for the purpose of having an outing,
to have a lark and a camp out in the wilds, not dreaming that
he was going to lead them in an attack upon the state for
any purpose whatever.

At the time of this event, people began to question one
another. Isn't this the beginning of the war between the
North and the South? But the excitement of the John Brown
episode soon passed, and to show how little weight had been
made on the public mind by his capture and execution, and

LEST WE FORGET 63

that of his sons, some one wrote the following jingle, which
became quite a popular neighborhood song:

'In Harper's Ferry section, they've had an insurrection,
John Brown thought the nigger would sustain him,
But old Governor Wise put his specs upon his eyes;
And sent him to the happy land of Caanan.

But John Brown, like Banquo's ghost, would not down,
and people began to ask themselves, "Was John Brown's ef-
fort to free the slaves all in vain, did he give his life for
nothing?" Ajnd the answer seemed to be impressed upon
the minds of these inquirers that coming events had cast
their shadows before. The efforts of John Brown, his cap-
ture and execution, were indeed a foreshadowing of the com-
ing war, and then public sentiment had seemingly under-
gone a decided change, and the following lines were com-
posed and sung round the camp fires of the Union soldiers:

John Brown's hody lies a mouldering in the grave,
Weep, ye sons of bondage whom he venturedTall to save,
Now, while the grass grows green above his grave,
His soul goes marching on, glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah.
Glory, glory hallelujah, his soul goes marching on.

In the autumn of 1860, at the November election for
President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was elected
president for the coming four years, gaining a decided vic-
tory over the Democratic nominee of the North, Stephen A.
Douglas, also defeating Breckenridge who was a nominee of
the people of the Southern States. It was believed by the
people who elected Lincoln that the right man had been
chosen and one who would meet with firmness and bravery
every requisition and maintain the safety of the Union, for
already the black clouds of the Civil War were ominously
looming in the south.

Pride Goeth Before a Fall

Desiring to interview a certain learned B. S. and Ph. D., a very
pompous, stylishly gowned female entered the lobby of a building which
she supposed to be the college where the gentleman might be found.

"Is Professor L in?" she enquired patronizingly of the person in at-
tendance. "He is not here," the one addressed replied.

"Not here!" irritably reiterated the other. "Well, hj should be."

"I beg pardon," the employee answered. "Do you know where you are?
This is not a college. This building is a hospital for the insane." — G. I. F.

Loyalty to our President

By Joseph S. Peery

Big miihl- are loyal to constituted authority. All the
universe is governed by law. To be in harmony with law,
we must be loyal. In God's perfected Kingdom every officer
works in perfect loyalty. Disloyalty would mean rebellion,
dissolution — destruction.

God chooses his representative here on earth. He makes
no mistake. Whoever he chooses is the right person in the
right place to fill a mission that no one else can perform.

In paragraph 7, section 132, Doctrine and Covenants,
God plainly states that the President of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints holds the eternal sealing and
binding power and is the anointed of God. "Whom I have
appointed on the earth to hold this power, and there is never
but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the
keys of this Priesthood are conferred."

Therefore, as a member of this Church I am bound by
all sacred ties to uphold and sustain God's chosen and anoint-
ed, and I am very pleased to do so. Should I hear our
President criticized at any time and not defend him I would
acquiesce in the disloyal utterance and would be equally
guilty. Why should not I uphold our presidents? Every one
of them fill their missions well, trained from infancy by the
Almighty to discharge their high and holy calling. All of
them are noble, choice, splendid men.

There is safety in sustaining our President. I have been
shown that a shakeup will come. Twelve years ago in a
realistic dream I saw a terrible convulsion of nature. One
building after another fell down. I was standing at the foot
of a hill, and, on the hill top, I saw a round tower tumble to
the ground. Looking around I noticed the President of the
Church. I went over to him, and together we walked up the
hill. About half way on the hillside we went into a build-
ing. Then I awoke. My interpretation is that when the
shakeup comes my place is to go with the President of the
Church, whoever he may be, and with God's help I propose
to do so.

In calm or in storm, it is the duty of all members of this
Church to uphold and sustain at all times God's anointed —
our President.

It is up to You

By Dr. Thomas L. Martin, Professor of Agronomy,
Brigham Young University

There is a tendency on the part of some to make their
schooling a matter of convenience, and, inasmuch as the at-
tendance at college will necessitate a little effort, a little grit,
a little determination, they are content to relax in their desires
and wait until they are a little better prepared financially.

The world loves a man with a purpose, especially when that
man has enough red blood in his veins to cany out that pur-
pose in the face of difficulty. "It stands aside for the man who
knows where he is going." It admires the man who proves that
to secure an education finances are but thirty-three and one-
third per cent; determination, sixty-six and two-thirds per cent.
We were placed upon this earth to subdue it, but when we see
young men and oftentimes young women living lives that indi-
cate that the earth has subdued them, it is indeed a sorry spec-
tacle. A man, when he knows where he stands and what he
plans to do in this world and launches out into the unknown to
accomplish these ends, is always happily surprised to find that
nature, with her forces, has enlisted in his cause and is working
for his success. Beautifully does Ralph Parlette tell about the
Mississippi river in his book entitled, Go on South.

The Mississippi river, the Father of Waters, begins as a
little, trickling creek. It wabbles through the woods of Min-
nesota. It does not know where it is going, but it is on its way.
Folks criticise it and say it has not water enough to get out of
the county. It only says, "I'm going ahead." It has water
enough to start out, and that is all it cares. As it continues
south it picks up a little more water here and there, and it sud-
denly finds itself developing into a big stream. "Do you know
why the Mississippi goes South?" is asked. To continue to be
the Mississippi. If it should stop and stagnate, it would not
be the Mississippi river, it would become a stagnant, poisonous
pond. What a wonderful illustration for the struggling youth!
As the river goes south it finds obstacles in the way. Concrete
dams are placed clear across its path. It still i« determined to
keep going south, so it rises higher than the obstacle and sweeps
over it on its selected path. The power it develops, due to over-
coming the obstacle, brings light and power to a thousand cities.
It meets further opposition from drainage canals, the muddy

66 IMPROVEMENT ERA

streams of its tributaries, all conspire to make things unpleasant
for the Mississippi, but it still goes south, neutralizing the poison
of the polluted streams and becoming bigger and stronger for
the experience. As it approaches the Gulf of Mexico the rive
becomes so large that science has not yet been able to put a
bridge across it. It bears upon its bosom the commerce of many
nations, and gives to the struggling youth one of its greatest
lessons: — with small beginnings and a great determination, the
biggest things in life are accomplished. If the little creek on
Lake Itasca, in Minnesota, should have thought that its waters
were too small to start on South, it would have degenerated into
a poisonous swamp and deprived the world of one of the greatest
wonders of the age.

The life story of the Mississippi river is the life story of
every man who has become a leader of men.

Young man, what is your decision? Do not shrivel in the
face of a small financial difficulty. Make the start, and you
will be surprised at your own powers. Your family, society,
your religious ideals, your future associates, demand that you
make the start. Surely you have the stuff within you. Read
Up by George Matthew Adams, Go by George Harrison Phelps,
University of Hard Knocks by Ralph Parlette, then prove to the
world you have the stuff within you. It is your ethical and re-
ligious duty to secure your educational training. Get it.
Provo, Utah

The Reward Though Unseen is Sure

By George Henry Norman

"Good afternoon, Sister Garratt, I am pleased to see you
at Sunday school. Have you been ill?"

"No," said Sister Garratt, "only staying away from the meet-
ings."

Elder Norton, who had been a keen student of human
nature all his life, perceived by her disinterested answer that
there was some other reason for her absence.

A further question elicited the fact that she had become
somewhat discouraged. Said Sister Garratt: "I have put a lot
into the Church, and have got so little out of it; I have come
here Sunday after Sunday; wet or fine, winter and summer,
I have been in my place as a teacher; yet, I do not seem to
have made any progress whatever, — in fact the children seem to
get more unruly in the class.

THE REWARD IS SURE 67

Elder Norton : "You say you have put a lot into the Church
and got so little out of it? Well, it is on this point that you have
made a great mistake, like many others who have been placed
in the same position as yourself. To work for reward is a good
principle in this life; it is an incentive to do those things that
in ordinary circumstances would be burdensome. But the re-
ward which we receive at the hands of men is only superficial;
only lasts for a certain time. In this life, men receive their good
things, and 'they preach for hire, divine for money, and judge
for reward,' and they stand at the street-corners to be seen of
men. Verily, they have their reward. The path of duty is the
path of safety, but sometimes the path is very hard and irksome.
We are surrounded by a 'cloud of witnesses' who take not of our
labor of love."

"Yes," said Sister Garratt; "I quite agree with what you
have said, but I seem not to have got much out of my efforts,
and sometimes, going through the same routine every Sunday
appears to me a mockery."

Elder Norton : "You say you seem to have got nothing out of
your efforts? Most probably this may be true regarding your-
self, but have you considered your students? Have they re-
ceived nothing by your efforts? Is it not possible that your
presence is an inspiration to them to do right? They are bap-
tized members of the Church, and children of our heavenly
Father, and it is possible that there may be a future leader of the
Church in your class. Also your regularity in attending to your
duties as a teacher has given them confidence in your teachings,
and as they grow older that confidence will become stronger
until it grows and develops into a strong testimony of the Gos-
pel of Christ and to those principles which they were taught
in the Sabbath School class.

"The rewards of men are seen, but the reward that comes
from God is sometimes unseen to us, here in the flesh. We
have to run the race with patience. The race is not to the swift
but to those who endure to the end. Here is the patience of
the Saints made manifest. We should not get impatient if we
do not see the immediate fruits of our efforts, for Paul may
plant, Appollos may water, but it is God that gives the increase.
And now, Sister Garratt, take my advice; keep to your Sabbath
School class, and teach the children the plain truths of the Gos-
pel of Jesus Christ, and in future years they will rise up and
call you blessed. And if you are faithful, your reward will be
given you at the great assize: 'Well done, thou good and faith-
ful servant * * * enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' "

Hull, England

Latter-day Saints Church in Minnesota

By Andrew Jenson, Assistant Church Historian

On my recent tour through the different missions in the
United States, in the interest of Church history, I visited among
other places St. Paul, Minnesota where the Saints hold regular
Sunday school and meetings and have a pretty little frame
church, or chapel, situated at No. 247 North Grotto St. The
chapel needed cleaning and repairs, and above all a new coat of
paint. The brethren made several inquiries as to what the
work could be done for, and the price asked, based on the

The L. D. S. Church in St. Paul, Minn., No. 247 N. Grotto Street, taken
in May, 1921 after being painted and re-roofed by the elders.

prevailing high wages, was almost prohibitive. So the mis-
sionaries held a little council meeting and discovered that one
of their number was a carpenter, another an experienced painter,
and all accustomed to manual labor at home. Hence, laying aside
their ministerial Prince Alberts, they donned overalls and
jumpers, and did the work themselves, and so well was the
work done that it drew forth praise and admiration, not only
from the Saints and their friends, but from the fraternity of
mechanics also. One of the pictures shown represents five elders
at work painting and re-shingling the Church in May, 1921.
Their names are Leander Theodore Thompson (President of the

L. D. S. CHURCH IN MINNESOTA

69

Minnesota conference), Leonard Rueckert, Darien Kartchner,
John Wallace Bond and Harmon M. Groesbeck. The other pic-
ture shows the chapel in its renovated condition.

Elders Leander Theodore Thomp-
son, Leonard Rueckert, Darien Kartch-
ener, John Wallace Bona\ and Har-
mon M. Groesbeck at work painting
and reshingling the L. D. S. chapel
in St. Paul, Minn., May, 1921.

Cigarettes and Opium

An English tobacco agent who has returned from China, tells with
pride that the Chinese are giving up opium for cigarettes, saying: "Cigar-
ettes are rapidly becoming moral uplifters in China!" The inference in-
tended is that cigarette smoking is less harmful than opium smoking. Dr.
Charles B. Towns, the drug specialist, who spent much time in China
treating opium addicts, says: "The man who smokes opium moderately
suffers no more physical deterioration than the man who inhales tobacco
moderately. The excessive smoker of cigarettes experiences the same
mental and physical disturbance, when deprived of them, that the opium
smoker experiences when deprived of opium. The medical treatment
necessary to bring about a physiological change in order to destroy the
craving is the same."

The fight against the cigarette is a fight for civilization. No agency
is more destructive of soul, mind and body, or more submersive of good
morals, than the cigarette.

Disarmament and Peace

By James H. Anderson, Member of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A.

The so-called Disarmament Conference called at Washing-
ton for November 11, 1921, is a disarmament conference only to
the extent of limiting national armaments within a scope that
may be decided upon by international agreement.

A simple inquiry as to the popular idea of the aim of the
conference would be: Does national disarmament or limitation
of armament mean world peace, or even an approach thereto?
A frequent and seemingly logical response is that men fought as
fiercely with clubs and spears as they do with machine guns and
gas bombs, that peace is more a question of man's disposition
than of his weapons. With the United States, limitation of
armament is largely a matter of industry and finance. If there
are less battleships, munitions of war, fighting planes, and stupe-
fying gases, there is less employment in such manufacture, and
proportionately smaller burden upon the taxpayer who pays the
bill.

Compared with most other nations, the United States is so
situated geographically, politically, and numerically as to popu-
lation and its character, that it has less need of a great mili-
tary and naval establishment than has any other of the great
nations. It is plain, therefore, that the United States is in a po-
sition better than any other of the great nations to urge limita-
tion of armament to the fullest extent that is judicious — and
that, too, from the self-interest of its people, whose defense from
outward aggression is second to the prosperity within.

But there is France — ever suspicious of Germany, however
the latter may be humiliated — ever fearful of a Russo-German
entente and its compelling force — ever dubious of Italy, whose
interests frequently are antagonistic to those of the French na-
tion. France will not, can not, reduce land-armament; that is too
definite for discussion.

Not less so is the case of Great Britain respecting naval
armament. Britain's navy is the bulwark of her national life,
her only weapon of defense from external aggression — this great-
est of colonizing nations, with her every frontier on the sea, ex-
cepting only her American and Chinese borders, where peace-
able peoples dwell. Britain must and will maintain a powerful
navy.

DISARMAMENT AND PEACE 71

Japan knows the situation with France and Great Britain
to be as here stated. There is no sentiment about it — just steel-
cold fact. With her 78,000,000 population, in a smaller area
than that of several of the states in the American Union, Japan
must expand or starve. The mainland of Asia is her only hope
of expansion, and her implements for that development are
land, sea and air, war machinery, idle or active. The Jap does
not see where he can disarm and live.

The international situation therefore resolves itself to this:
Limitation of the newer and more expensive methods of war-
fare, viz.: the air service and the use of irritating gases and
powerful explosives. This possible restriction is upon the most
costly, dangerous and terrifying agencies yet produced — air-
planes, gases and high explosives, yet these cover the most at-
tractive field now known for experiment, investigation and in-
vention. This class of armament may be checked by inter-
national agreement, just as the use of dumdum bullets was
made taboo; and the method of limitation is open to the con-
ference. In this there is hope for a modification of warlike con-
ditions which now prevail and which threaten the future, es-
pecially as to the United States; although the period of fruition
for that hope may not yet be told. This disarmament confer-
ence may fix a limit on new and costly armament, and declare
some fundamental principles which may be worked out in de-
tail in further conferences. This work involves the stupendous
task of revising, and in many respects changing, the whole code
of international law. Such a labor will occupy months, or even
years. It will require diplomatic skill, legal knowledge, pa-
tience, care and judgment of a superior order, and a sincere de-
sire for human harmony. Nothing less will suffice.

As for Utah, this state is listed for an important part in the
Washington conference. Secretary of State Hughes has selected
J. Reuben Clark, of Utah, to assist the American State Depart-
ment in the preparation of matters on the limitation of arma-
ments and Far East problems from an international aspect, for
the conference; this deals with both fundamentals and details.*

* * * The selection of a Utah man for the responsible
position gives to this state a special interest in the conference
and its outcome; * * * and Utah's people are devoted to
real, genuine peace among men.

In this whole great problem, however, there is one dom-
inant and almost controlling element. That is the human equa-
tion. The desire to quarrel seems more pointed and persistent

*Some years ago an extended sketch of Mr. Clark appeared in the Era.
He is about 50 years of age. His parents reside in Grantsville and his own
family in Salt Lake City.— Editors.

72 IMPROVEMENT ERA

among certain classes of the people in every nation now than it
was immediately prior to the opening of the great war, in 1914.
The major portion of Europe is quarreling — eastern Europe and
western Asia are in actual warfare. India, China and northern
Africa are not exempt. Then the religious question comes in,
and now is almost rending the foremost European power — a
nation whose language and literature is the same as our own,
and from which we are not entirely disconnected.

It is unwise to close our eyes to certain interesting facts.
Three and a half years ago — February 22, 1918 — at a great meet-
ing in Philadelphia, Cardinal Gibbons, chief representative of
the Romish church in America, introduced and advocated in a
powerful speech a resolution adopted there, demanding inde-
pendence for Ireland. Of that occasion a present member of the
British cabinet declared, "It is the first gun openly fired by the
Roman Catholic church in a campaign for the dismemberment
of Protestant Great Britain." The thought does not stop there.
In an announcement recently made by one of the most distin-
guished representatives of the Protestant Episcopal church, and
published in the English-speaking press throughout the world
on October 1, 1921, Dr. R. J. Campbell, vicar of Christ Church,
Westminster, London, made this public statement on a burning
question: "Even the fullest concession of Sinn Fein demands by
the British government never will make Ireland a friend of
England. The Roman Catholic influence is too strong, and that
influence aims at destroying the influence of England as the
greatest Protestant power in the world." This, in the circum-
stances, was almost an official utterance. It expresses the con-
tinued and abiding conviction of the major portion of the great
Anglican church membership in Great Britain and throughout
the world — a deep and intense religious conviction for which
men and peoples will fight and die. The issue thus presented,
in connection with disturbed conditions hereinbefore named, is
no harbinger of world peace, or even European harmony.

Yet we must not despair of achieving the good, if only step
by step. Leading minds in every land are aiming for the desirable
outcome. The world's noblest elements are working for the time

when

No strife shall rage, nor hostile feuds

Disturb those peaceful years;
To plowshares men shall beat their swords—

To pruning hooks their spears;
No longer host encountering host

Shall crowds of slain deplore;
They'll hang the trumpet in the hall,

And study war no more."

Thoughtful men and women everywhere are hoping and
looking for world peace. At present they seem to be trying

DISARMAMENT AND PEACE 73

every method of attaining that end, except the only means that
ever has made certain promise of success — conformity with the
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, revealed on both of the world's
great hemispheres, and now only superficially sought for, save
by comparatively few. But the longing, reaching, for the better
day, must in each effort bear results in carrying us nearer to
the goal, and though it may be through years of anxious effort
and fiery trials, draw men to the sheltering wing of the Divine
Providence which has declared,

The rays that shine from Zion's hill

Shall lighten every land;
The King who reigns in Salem's towers

Shall all the world command.

If I Can

The gift of birth hath set me free!

If I can now employ at length
The faculties God gave to me,

The time, the talent, light and strength,
I shall not fail my ministry.

If I can turn the wheel of fortune fair

For nobler purpose than to gratify
The narrow self — hoard not to hold, but share —

I shall not live in vain nor fear to die.

Success is sure if I can but keep free

From selfish fetters that enslave mankind,
From bands that curb the soul and will in me,

And dwarf the power of hand and heart and mind.

If I can make some other person smile,

Or breathe some hope unto his stricken soul,

Life's hour of acting then is worth the while,
I'd ask to play no nobler, higher role.

If I can only gain and cultivate

That simple grace which Paul called charity,

The grace which knows no bounds however great,
That is the noblest, rarest quality.

I shall not then judge nor disdain another;

The world shall be then one vast home to me,
Each soul a sister or a well loved brother,

Endeared by grace of human sympathy.
St. Charles, Idaho Lawrence J. Sorenson

The Utah Anti-Tobacco Law of 1920

By Fred L. W. Bennett

Habitual users of tobacco seem to think that smoking is
natural to mankind like breathing, talking, eating, and that
those persons who do not smoke are peculiar or abnormal; and
so when the latter voice their objections to the use of tobacco
in their presence, they are denounced as fanatics and killjoys
and accused of interfering with the rights of others. This was
brought out very forcibly during one of the public discussions
on the anti-tobacco measure passed by the last legislature. The
author of the bill was criticised by a local business man because
he had asked that smoking in barber shops be made unlawful.
I do not have a report of the discussion before me at the mo-
ment, but this is, in effect, what was said:

Business man: "Why should I not be allowed to enjoy a
smoke whilst waiting for a shave?"

Author of the Bill: "Whilst you are enjoying that smoke
it might be very offensive to me."

Business man, with an air of one who has won a great vic-
tory: "Then shave yourself at home!"

That is the attitude of most smokers; they seem quite in-
capable of understanding that tobacco was not known to civil-
ized man until comparatively recent times, and that it is those
who use it who are peculiar and "different." I wish this could
be flashed in the face of every smoker when he lights his to-
bacco in the presence of a non-smoker; he might hesitate be-
fore he did it again. It is not only that smoking is a modern
fad, as history goes; but it is one that was copied from a de-
graded, dirty, backward people who were not at all "smart" as
their imitators imagine themselves to be!

The use of tobacco has become a positive menace. There
are few who will not agree that it is responsible for hundreds
and thousands of disastrous fires throughout the nation, in
which human life, as well as property, is often lost, but there
are a great many who do not realize its danger to health. We
are often told that a man has a right to hurt himself by using
tobacco, if he likes, but I am not concerned here with the
smoker's health — or I would have something to say on this
question, I am thinking of the non-smoker who is often com-
pelled to inhale tobacco fumes, hour after hour, and day after
day, with no chance of escape. Take the girls — and boys, too —
who are running the elevators in our office buildings; they have
to breathe tobacco smoke from the time they get into their cars
until it is time to go home. Many smokers will carry burning

THE UTAH ANTI-TOBACCO LAW 75

tobacco in their hands when they enter an elevator and refrain
from putting it between their lips until they step out, but oth-
ers will puff as hard as they would on a desert! I believe the
practice of smoking in elevators is more prevalent than it was
a year ago, for one rarely steps into a crowded car now with-
out seeing tobacco. The law passed by the last legislature for-
bids even the carrying of a lighted cigar, cigarette or pipe in
a public elevator.

Another section of the law in question seeks to prohibit the
sale of cigarettes or cigarette papers in the state, and to many
people this is the most important function of the recent act,
because if it were obeyed, smoking among young people would
be reduced to a minimum. Many opponents of the law have
contended that it is inconsistent to select one form of tobacco
for prohibition and permit the other forms to be used. Others
have held that there is no logic in passing a law against the
sale of a thing unless its use is to be prohibited, too. I will
grant that both of these objections are reasonable. It does
seem strange that a man should not be allowed to use tobacco
in that form which suits him best, if he is to be permitted to
use it at all, and it seems even more strange that tobacco in a
certain form cannot be sold in the very place where it may
be used without let or hindrance. Mr. Smoke*, Mr. Tobacco-
Trade: we realize the situation and can see humor in it as well
as you. But what is the alternative? Do you wish us to be
perfectly logical and insist that, in the first case, tobacco be
stamped out, root and branch; and in the second, that the use
of cigarettes in Utah be forbidden as well as their sale?

If tobacco is to be kept from the growing boy and girl with-
out abolishing its use altogether, the only way it can be accom-
plished is by attacking the cigarette, and in any way that seem:,
expedient, for the cigarette is the door through which the to-
bacco habit is entered. I have heard people who profess to be
enemies of tobacco attack the cigarette law on the ground of
inconsistency, but I cannot think such persons are really friends
of the no-tobacco movement; they are too ready to play into
the hands of its opponents. One of the greatest objections of-
fered by the opponents of the anti-cigarette law when it was be-
fore the legislature was that it could not be enforced. But why
should it not be possible to enforce such a law? I am aware that
the present act, except insofar as it relates to the advertising of
cigarettes, is more or less a dead letter, but that is because the
majority of those in whose hands the enforcement of law lies are
opposed to or indifferent to this particular measure and wink
at its violation. Let our police officers give this anti-tobacco
law the same careful consideration and attention that they give
other laws, and no one will be able to sneer at it on the ground

76 IMPROVEMENT ERA

of lack of enforcement. But if they are determined to treat
it with contempt, men should be put in their places who will
uphold the law. This will not be difficult of accomplishment
if our citizens who believe in the enforcement of such a law, —
and they are in the large majority, or the recent act would
never have been passed in the face of such strenuous opposition
from the tobacco interests — would put their shoulder to the
wheel. Some have said that the Salt Lake City Commission
has not passed a city ordinance conforming with the anti-cig-
arette act, because certain of its members desire to be re-elected
and they are afraid to be thought on the side of this particular
law! If our anti-tobacco friends in the city and state will stand
by their convictions during the coming elections and vote for
only those candidates who are prepared to enforce the law re-
gardless of their own personal prejudices, this state of affairs
will quickly come to an end. It is up to the people, for we are
living under a democratic form of government, where the ma-
jority rule, and not under Caesars, Kaisers and Czars.

There is no excuse for the attitude of our city commission-
ers and those county authorities who have made no effort to
enforce this measure of tobacco reform. They have sworn to
uphold the law, and if the enforcement of the one in question
goes against their conscience ( ! ) they should resign. The whole
trouble seems to be, as was said at the beginning of this article,
that the users of tobacco are convinced that all who do not
smoke are "cranks," and they are going to ignore any regula-
tion for curtailing their "liberties" unless that regulation is
pressed by the greatest determination on the part of the non-
smokers. But so long as the people of Utah, who are opposed
to the indiscriminate use of tobacco, allow petty politics and
inertia to stand in the way of their duty to the youth of this
state and their own rights as citizens and neglect to see that the
right men are chosen to enforce the laws, the disgusting, nauseat-
ing habit of smoking in public elevators, dining rooms, and other
enclosed places and the increasing use of cigarettes among the
youth will not be checked. If the law is to be ignored, if those
who would be known as enemies of the tobacco habit cannot be
aroused to action, let me appeal to the smokers to refrain from
using tobacco in the public elevators of our city, at least. Let
them not do it out of respect for law, but out of consideration
for the girls and boys who are forced to earn a living and who
are compelled to stay in a stuffy little elevator car hour after
hour from which the smoke cannot escape, whilst they them-
selves can go out into the fresh air at pleasure. If they are
aggrieved at the efforts of the no-tobacconists and the action of
the last legislature, let them do it IN SPITE of the Law !
Salt Lake City, Utah

The October Conference

The Semi-annual Conference of the Church, held on the
6th, 7th and 9th of October, was perhaps the best attended con-
ference in the history of the Church. Notwithstanding the
scarcity of money and the general tie-up of business which had
prevailed, the people from all parts of the Church were in at-
tendance, and the Tabernacle was practically filled, on Thurs-
day and Friday, at all the meetings. Saturday was given up
to the missionary and other organizations for meetings, and that
visitors might attend the State Fair, or transact such other busi-
ness as they desired during their stay in the city. On Sunday not
only the Tabernacle was filled to its full capacity, every seat
and every available space of standing room being occupied, but
there were, besides, two overflow meetings, in the Assembly Hall
and at the Bureau of Information. Many hundreds were un-
able to find room in either place, and therefore remained on the
grounds surrounding. A feeling of satisfaction and peace per-
vaded the large assemblies, and the Spirit of the Lord was richly
manifest in the sermons of the First Presidency and the leading
authorities, presidents of stakes, mission presidents, and others
who spoke. The opening sermon by President Heber J. Grant
abounded in excellent advice concerning financial, spiritual, and
practical matters for the people, including faith-promoting inci-
dents. His remarks in full will be presented to our readers, in
the December number of the Era. Other speeches made during
the conference will appear from time to time as apportunity
offers.

A resolution was passed expressing the sentiments of the
Church relating to peace and the limitation of armaments
which will be considered in the convention of the nations this
month opening at Washington on Armistice Day. It reads as
follows :

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, brought forth and
established by the power of God and dedicated to the mission of prepar-
ing the way for the glorious coming of the Son of God to reign in the earth,
in truth and righteousness and peace, beholds with deep interest every
authoritative movement taken by the nations in the interest of world
peace.

"It is believed that the conference called in Washington to consider the
limitation of armaments and questions concerning the Pacific, and nations

78 IMPROVEMENT ERA

of the far East may, under the favor of heaven, promote this great ob-
jective.

"To the end that it may do so, the Latter-day Saints, in general confer-
ence now assembled, approve the appointment of a Sabbath day before the
11th of November, 1921, on which in all the wards and stakes of Zion, and
in all branches of the Church in the United States and in the missions
throughout the world, the members of the Church, shall be called together,
in their usual places of worship, to engage in special, and solemn prayer
for Divine guidance of the international conference on the limitation of
armaments, that the cause of peace may be thereby enhanced and an
amelioration of the burdens of mankind secured."

Sunday, November 6, was adopted as the day on which special
prayer shall be observed in the stakes and wards of the Church.

From the statistics presented, it appears that there were
1,798 missionaries in the field, and that the missionary work
throughout the world is progressing rapidly. It was reported
that 65 per cent more baptisms had been made than during the
previous year. The growth of the Church in the stakes of Zion
had been remarkable, and altogether the condition of the
Church is favorable in every respect. Some difficulty had been
experienced in matters financial owing to the economic read-
justments following the war, and very earnest remarks were
given by President Grant and others counseling the people to
be thrifty and economical, to get out of debt and to support
home industry. Very strong emphasis was placed upon this coun-
sel, and generally there was a feeling among the leading authori-
ties present, general and local, that the Saints will follow this ex-
cellent advice. The conference on the whole was successful
from every standpoint. Unity of feeling in the Presidency of
the Church was clearly demonstrated in the remarks and ser-
mons of Presidents Heber J. Grant, Charles W. Penrose, and
Anthony W. Ivins, and was reflected in the earnest sermons given
by the nine members of the Council of the Twelve who were
present, and the First seven Presidents of Seventy, as well as in
the remarks of all the others who spoke. Of the Council of the
Twelve, Elder Orson F. Whitney was absent, presiding over the
European mission; Elder David O. McKay, making a world tour
of the missions, and Elder Reed Smoot was in Washington. The
Lord certainly made manifest his Holy Spirit at the ninety-
second Semi-annual Conference, which marked an important
milestone of progress in the "marvelous work and a wonder"
which the Lord has established in the latter days, for the wel-
fare and advantage of the people.

The 113th Anniversary of President John Taylor

During the life time of President John Taylor his family
for many years were called together every year on the first day

EDITORS' TABLE 79

of November to celebrate his birthday. He was born November
1, 1808. Since his death the family have continued the happy
custom, and are celebrating this year as usual. The following
stirring sentiments from his writings have been selected to be
presented before the family, on lantern slides, during the eve-
ning of the celebration. These sentiments, on friendship, free-
dom, prayer, purity, honor, honesty and economy, are of such
a character that they are valuable Church-wide, and beneficial
to every man, woman and child who may read them :

His motto was — "Money is of little importance where truth is con-
cerned."

"If a thing is done well, no one will ask how long it took to do it, but,
who did it?"

"I would rather have God for my friend than all other influences and
powers outside."

"Never do an act that you would be ashamed of man knowing, for God
sees us always, both day and night,, and if we expect to live and reign with
him in eternity, we ought to do nothing that will disgrace us in time.

It is the crowns, the principalities, the powers, the thrones, the do-
minions, and the associations with the Gods that we are after, and we are
here to prepare ourselves for these things — this is the main object of ex-
istence."

"I can get along very nicely with my old coat this winter," he wrote:
"It is a little faded, but then I prefer a faded coat to a faded reputation;
and I do not propose to ask for accommodations that I am not prepared
to meet."

"I would rather trust in the living God than in any other power on
earth. I learned (while on missions) that I could go to God and he always
relieved me. He always supplied my wants. I always had plenty to eat,
drink, and wear, and could ride on steam-boats or railroads, or anywhere
I thought proper: God always opened my way, and so he will that of every
man who will put his trust in him."

"We should be strictly honest, one with another, and with all men; let
our word always be as good as our bond; avoid all ostentation of pride and
vanity; and be meek, lowly, and humble; be full of integrity and honor;
and deal justly and righteously with all men; and have the fear and love
of God continually before us, and seek for the comforting influence of the
Holy Ghost to dwell with us."

During his stay in Paris, he visited the Palace Vendome, and with a
number of friends ascended Napoleon's Column 6i Victory. His com-
panions scratched their names on the column, as thousands had done before
them. Seeing that Elder Taylor had not written his name, they asked
him to write it with theirs. "No," he replied, "I will not write my name
there; but I will yet write it in living, imperishable characters!"

"I pray God the Eeternal Father that when we have all finished our
probation here, we may be presented to the Lord without spot or blemish,
as pure and honorable representatives of the Church and kingdom of God
on the earth, and then inherit a celestial glory in the kingdom of our
God, and enjoy everlasting felicity with the pure and just in the realms of
eternal day, through the merits and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior and Redeemer, in worlds without end. Amen."

"The Prophet Joseph gave a special charge to me while living, as near
as I can remember as follows: 'Brother Taylor, never arise in the morning
or retire at night, without dedicating yourself unto God and asking his
blessings upon you through the day or night, as the case may be, and the

80 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Lord God will bear and answer your prayers; and don't let any circum-
stances prevent it.' I had been in the habit of doing so, for years before
this; but since that time I have not omitted, to my knowledge, the ob-
servance of this duty, morning or evening."

"I was not born a slave! I cannot, will not be a slave. I would not
be slave to God! I'd be his servant, friend, his son. I'd go at his behest;
but would not be his slave. I'd rather be extinct than be a slave. His
friend I feel I am, and he is mine: — a slave! The manacles would pierce
my very bones — the clanking chains would grate upon my soul — a poor,
lost servile, crawling wretch to lick the dust and fawn and smile upon the
thing who gave the lash! Myself — perchance, my wives, my children, to
dig the mud, to mould the brick, and furnish our own straw! * * *
But stop! I'm God's free man: I will not, cannot be a slave! Living, I'll
be free here, or free in life above — free with the Gods, for they are free;
and if I'm in the way on earth, I'll ask my God to take me to my friends
above!"

The PalestiDe Weekly"

A striking evidence of the onward march of the Holy
Land, in the last few years, has just reached the Church His-
torian's office, in the form of a sample copy of a weekly news-
paper, printed in the city of Jerusalem in the English language.
To anyone who visited that country before the advent of rail-
roads, and noticed on every hand unmistakable signs of mis-
government, ignorance, fanaticism, poverty, and ruin, this repre-
sentative of the press is indeed a welcome harbinger of a better
day.

The name of the paper is The Palestine Weekly, and the
copy received bears the date of September 9, 1921. Immediately
under the name the announcement is made that the publication
is devoted to "News, Commerce, Literature, Sport and Arch-
aeology." It has sixteen pages, printed in double columns. The
name of the editor does not appear.

Looking at the contents, "Notes of the Week" occupy the
first place. Under this heading we are told that a committee
has been formed at Jaffa for sending relief to Russia, and that
another committee will be appointed at Haifa ; that the crop out-
look in Palestine is below the average and that prices on cereals
are going up; also that a notable outlaw has been captured by
the police of Samaria, and that a Water Supply Committee has
reported that the spring water supply of Jerusalem can be
trebled at no great cost. It need not be said that that is an item
of tremendous importance to the people of this new Jerusalem.

Under the caption, "The Two Congresses," the paper has
an account of the proceedings of the pan-Arab congress at
Geneva and the Zionist congress at Carlsbad, which is the first
of the kin(J since the beginning of the war, and the twelfth in the

EDITORS' TABLE 81

history of modern Zionism. This article is followed by local
news from Transjordania, Saffed, Tiberias, Haifa, Jaffa,
Rechovoth, and Jerusalem. There are, further, an article on
"Wine growing in Palestine," a "Letter to the Editor" from a
gentleman who signs himself "Habbakuk," and who urges meas-
ures for the sanitation and beautification of Jerusalem; and a
report on the "Economic Situation of Palestine at the Close of
the Financial Year," submitted to H. E. the High Commissioner,
by Mr. R. A. Harari, Director of the Department of Commerce
and Industry.

The paper is well patronized by advertising, which tells its
own story about the industrial and financial forward stride of
the country.

The paper was accompanied by the following letter:

"Jerusalem, September 11th, 1921,
"Historian's Office,
"Church Building,

"Salt Lake City, Utah.
"Sir: — In response to a request from Mrs. Susa Young Gates we have
great pleasure in sending you a specimen copy of The Palestine Weekly.
The Palestine Weekly is the only English journal published in Palestine, and
not only covers the news and opinion of this and neighboring countries but
also reports the most important foreign news. We are sure you will find our
paper both useful and interesting, and trust to receive your support.

"Yours truly,

"The Palestine Weekly."

The copy at hand is No. 34 of the second volume. The
yearly subscription price abroad is £1-5-8. This information will
answer many inquiries that have reached the Improvement Era.

Praying so that You may be Heard

A brother in one of the stakes of Zion writes the Era asking
us to call attention to the frequent inability of the listener to
hear people who are called upon to pray or to speak in our
meetinghouses and assembly halls, ward and stake.

He says: "Two years ago we were in Salt Lake City and
were sitting in the third row from the front seat in the Taber-
nacle, and although we heard a pin drop from the far end of the
building before the meeting, we were unable to hear the brother
who was called upon to pray."

There is some virtue in the complaint that this correspond-
ent makes concerning elders who are called upon to pray, ad-
minister the Sacrament, or speak in the religious assemblies of
the Saints. Those who open and close meetings by prayer
should do so in a voice audible enough for all to hear. It is
very essential that this should be done; but, on the other hand,

82 IMPROVEMENT ERA

there are people who are unable to make their voices carry over
large congregations in big meetinghouses. Particularly is this
the case in the great Tabernacle, in Salt Lake City. People
who are called upon there to pray are frequently from outlying
districts, particularly during Conference time, and are not ac-
customed to the big building, and really do not know how much
effort it takes to speak so that they may be heard. In smaller
houses throughout the Church there is not quite so much oc-
casion for not being heard, but even there we have noticed that
some speakers cannot carry their voices far enough to be heard
over the hall. It is a matter of training, and the reason why they
cannot make themselves heard is that they have not been trained
to speak clearly and distinctly. It would be a good idea for the
authorities in such places to call attention to the need of speak-
ing up, so that all the congregation may hear what is being
said, and so be able to join in the prayer or in the sermon at
its close with a hearty "Amen."

\n Error Corrected

Students and teachers of the Junior Manual will notice in
Lesson 8 on "Courage," in the 5th paragraph from the top, an
unfortunate omission of certain lines in the printing. The 5th
paragraph should read: "Nathan C. Tenney had established a
ranch at Short Creek where he built a house, but in common
with others had abandoned it and moved to Toquerville, about
twenty-five miles distant."

The next paragraph should begin: "In December, 1866,
three horsemen rode out from Toquerville, their destination
being the Short Creek ranch. They were fairly well mounted,"
etc.

Messages from the Missions

Wonderful Progress in the Swiss-German Mission

Perhaps a message from the mission in the land of the League of
Nations would be of interest to your readers. Since the great War began,
in the year 1914, very little has been heard directly from the missionary
work in Switzerland and Germany, but we take pleasure in saying that the
work of the Lord, even during the war, and especially since, has made
great progress. At home, in Utah, we have very little idea of what students
of the gospel, and how faithful the members of the Church, are in this
great mission field on the Continent of Europe. Our branches cover a
territory stretching from Russia to France, we have a conference with
several thriving branches in Austria, seven conferences with 65 branches
in Germany, three conferences in Switzerland with 16 branches, and a

EDITORS' TABLE 83

conference with three branches in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
We have 115 missionaries, only 15 of whom are Americans the rest being
called from these lands themselves to fill two and three years missions.
This force is augmented by branch presidents, conference presidents, and
other officers until we have now, for the first time since all the missionaries
were called out at the beginning of the war, a fully organized mission with
conferences and branches. I am enclosing herewith a picture of the mis-
sionaries who attended the Berlin conference on 28th and 29th August, 1921,
which will give some idea of the class of men in this work and the mag-

nitude of the same. In the first row, with President S. F.. Ballif and Presi-
dent Whitney, sit the conference presidents as follows: Alfons Finck, Ham-
burg, Ernest Hornickel, Chemnitz, Hermann Gozinski, Berlin, Egon Glaus,
Konigsberg, Willy Wegener, Hannover, Alfred Niederhauser, Vienna, Josef
Duran, Dresden, and Reinhold Stoff, Frankfurt A. M. The other four
rows consist of the following:

Bruno Drohmer, Ludwig Hierbock, Julius Sachs, Max Stange, Herman
Rodorff, Friedrich Korschning, Fritz Scharffs, Arthur Tuchel, Benno Sie-
bach, Albert Wiechert, Friedrich Fischer, Bruno Dinse, Andreas Rosskopf,
Otto Wiechert,, Arthur Hiller, H. Steffian, Jr., Karl Hofmann, Kurt Otto
Mathes, Erich Waldhaus, Martin Huber, Karl Weiss, Will Doring, Heinrich
Sinsel, Fr. Kuffner, Alma J. Schindler, Wilhelm Pobanz, Wilhelm Linde,
August Zastrow, Phillip Schmidt, George Marquard, Richard Schutze, Gott-
lieb Rugner, Fritz Farber, Erich Holstein, Max Horold, William Ludwig,
Friedrich Szibalski, Kirt Hahle, Joseph Littke, Kurt Bottner, Phillip Tron,
Friedrick Nickel, Emil Geist, Otto Hunger, Johannes Carstens, Hans
Smyczek, Karl Klug, Alfred Dzierson, Jacob Uibel, Otto Drews, Erich Reich,
Hermann Ruf, Max Nabrotski, Richard Barth, Gustav Wittorf, Friedrich
Baumgart, B. Maier, R. Eisenreich, F. Romeike^ Ernst Will, J. Hilgendorff,
J. Stook, K. Schleich, F. Wernick, E. Georgi, K. Tschaggeny, E. Leuk, Fritz
Huber. The following are Americans: William Korth, Fred. Korth,
Hartwig Ruckert, W. U. Fuhriman J. H. Zenger, Conrad Dietz, Howard
Stoddard, Ludwig Gleich, David Hirschi, F. V. Niederhausern.

With this force of missionaries a splendid work is being accomplished
but in this field there is room for almost ten times as many more. Much
of the credit for the success of the work in the mission rests with the mem-

84 IMPROVEMENT ERA

bers themselves, who fully sense the responsibility of explaining the gos-
pel to their neighbors and thereby help forward the work of the Lord.

The Mission has done a great deal in the way of dispensing funds
and food and clothng to famine and war sufferers and at the present time
we have a dozen or more undernourished children in Switzerland from
Germany and Austria to recuperate. It can be affirmed that the distress
is still very acute in these countries, and will become more so during
the coming winter and all help from the United States will be greatly ap-
preciated both by the missionaries and the people in general. In fact one
of our main occupations in the mission office is to disburse funds for the
sufferers. As an example of the faith of these stricken little members of
the Church the following will give some idea:

During this summer we had a case of a little boy from Bremen, Ger-
many, who came to Switzerland to get well. He remained here a few
weeks, but his case was so hopeless that it was decided to send him back
to his parents, as tuberculosis had already taken a fatal hold on his frail
undernourished body. This little boy (of "Mormon" parents) three days
before he died, when he was passing through the Mission office insisted
on paying his tithing from money that the members of the Church had
given him to help him on his way home. This is an example of the faith-
fulness of our members here, notwithstanding the suffering they must
endure.

It would surprise some of the people in Utah perhaps to know that in
this Mission we have 87 branches, and in many of the larger centers, like
Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Breslau, and Chemnitz the attendance was so
good that it was found necessary to divide the branches into two and three,
and in Berlin four. We have three system of money to handle, Swiss,
French, German Marks, and Austrian Kronen. We have branches in French
speaking parts, branches in Switzerland proper, in Germany and Austria,
and scattered Saints in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France, etc. In fact, we
find this mission a likeness of the League of Nations, which a party of
us had an opportunity to visit recently. When President Ballif makes
a trip over even a part of the mission, we bid him goodby for a month or
two, and he can go from one city to another and hold conferences and meet-
ings every night.

Recently on the trip of President Orson F. Whitney and party they
started in at Lausanne, Switzerland, and held meetings all through this
land and in the larger cities of Germany, and from there to Rotterdam. In
Zurich, Switzerland, there were approximately 500 present twice daily, in
Hamburg 450 and in Berlin 1,100.

Conditions are still in somewhat of a turmoil on the Continent of
Europe with the possibility of small wars breaking out almost at any time.
One of our missionaries just writes that he was compelled to vacate his
room in an armory, as it was needed to house soldiers being mobilized
by Austria against Hungary. So it goes, the wars will probably continue
indefinitely, but on the other hand, there is undoubtedly a religious awaken-
ing, and the way seems to be prepared by the wars for the reception of
the gospel. — O. K. Winters, Mission Secretary, Basel, Schweiz, September
20, 1921.

Twenty-three Baptisms in Newcastle Conference

The missionary work is progressing very favorably in the Newcastle
conference. We have already had twenty-three baptisms this year, and
have several more who are getting ready for the near future. This is
mostly due to the increase in help, as when I came to this conference a
year ago I found President David E. Randall working alone and we now

EDITORS' TABLE 85

have ten elders. They are: James T. Palmer, Morgan, John Black, Mont-
pelier, Robert E. Finch, Goshen, Charles W. Speierman, Logan, Ralph S.
Gray, Salt Lake City, Thomas V. Phillips Springville, William E. White,
Beaver, Russell B. Hodgson, Salt Lake City, Ezra T. Benson, Whitney, Idaho,
and myself, Provo. We are taking up systematic tracfing, going over the
territory two and three times, as this is the best form of missionary work
we can do, and we feel that it is a successful means of preaching the gos-
pel for a witness of the Savior by telling them of the restoration of the
gospel. We now have eight progressive branches in this conference whose
Saints have been tested during the war, when thy suffered much persecu-
tion and many discouragements, but they have had a strong testimony and
their spirits have answered true to their conscience thus enabling them to
stand.

We all enjoy reading the Era and look forward with pleasant anticipa-
tion to each number to get the news from home, the spiritual treats, and a
lesson in the practical problems of life. We also make good use of it by
passing it on to our investigators, and are recommending it as being a
magazine of extra value. — Donald C. Crowther, Conference President.

Sunday School in Nottingham — Death of Mary E. Hayes

James L. Graham reports a successful Sunday School in the Not-
tingham conference, England, in the Eastwood branch. This school held
an annual party on Pioneer Day, 1921. Eastwood is a small mining town
about eleven miles from the city of Nottingham. The Church branch has
outgrown the room they occupy — its seating capacity being about forty,
whereas they often have to accommodate from seventy to eighty people.
All the officers and teachers are very earnest, faithful and progressive
workers. Something like half of the members of the school are children
of investigators. The branch president is William H. Mullinger; Sunday
School superintendent, George William Hart; with Joseph Allen and George
William Thompson as second and first counselors to the Presidency.

Elder Graham also calls attention to the death of Ma^y Elizabeth Hayes,
on July 12, 1921, the beloved wife of First Counselor Harry Hayes, of the
Hucknall branch. She was a faithful member of the Church for thirty-
four years, and was First Counselor in the Relief Society where she per-
formed valuable work. She lived a consistent life,was a loyal wife, an ex-
emplary mother, and a true friend to all in need. At the funeral there was
a large attendance of sympathizing relatives, Saints and friends present.
President Samuel Pears and Annie E. Noble, gave talks, and Elder E.
Brough delivered an impressive address at the grave, which was dedi-
cated by Elder Abraham Noble.

Died in the Mission Field

The First Presidency received word from the Southern States Mis-
sion, Atlanta, Georgia, on the 11th of October, of the death of J. Ralph
Watt of Tremonton, Utah, a missionary of the Southern states, who left
for his mission January 14, 1920. He died on the night of the DOth at
Lamison, Alabama,, the cause of his death being pneumonia. His body was
embalmed and sent home in the care of a companion. Elder Watt is the
son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Watt, and was born August 24, 1899 at Layton,
Utah. President C. A. Callis of the Southern States Mission, was in Salt
Lake City when the word was received, and stated that the missionary was
in excellent health when President Callis left for Conference, in Salt Lake
City. Elder Silver accompanied the body home. Elder Watt was buried,
at Layton, Oct. 18.

Priesthood Course of Study for 1922

At a recent meeting of the Priesthood Committee the following books
were adpoted as a study course for 1922:

For the Melchizedek Priesthood and priests of the Church: Essentials
in Church History, a book of some six or seven hundred pages by Joseph
Fielding Smith, containing a history and doctrines of the Church. The
price of the book will be as near as can now be stated, $1.50.

For the teachers: The Life of Christ, a pamphlet which, as near as
can now be stated, will cost 25c.

For the deacons: Duty Stories from the Book of Mormon, a text that
will cost, as near as can now be stated, 25c per copy.

These books are all slated to be ready by the first of January so that
they can be used at the beginning of the priesthood year. Orders for the
Melchizedek Priesthood text books should be sent to the Deseret Book Com-
pany, Salt Lake City, Utah; and for the teachers and deacons, to the Im-
provement Era.

Standard of Action for the Lesser Priesthood

II

A noted speaker recently discoursed on the great power of love. He
was speaking upon the auxiliary organization slogan for the present year,
"We stand for loyal citizenship*" and called attention to the fact that if
we only love, loyalty will follow of itself. In speaking of love, he stated
that all that he had loved in life he had loved because he could not help
it. This latter part expresses much truth, because love, like faith, is a
gift of God; but nevertheless, we can help ourselves to love through a sin-
cere cultivation of those elements of which it consists, and so make our
own lives and the lives of our friends happier.

Calling attention again to the splendid analysis of love by Paul the
Apostle, in First Corinthians 13, let us here consider two out of the nine
of its elements as there presented. It is possible to cultivate these so that
we may learn to love any worthy object, especially God and our fellow
men. It is a fact that by becoming familiar with men, we learn to love
them, particularly if we apply the elements of love in our association with
them, and try to "Think and act a loving thought each day."

Two of these elements are patience and kindness.

Patience is shown in a person who is considerate of playmates, friends,
parents, brothers, sisters, who is calm, uncomplaining, veady to serve, and
in every action is cheerful, good-natured quiet, lenient, forbearing, and
watchful. This element of love enables one to control oneself, to suffer
long; it makes one willing and powerful to quietly wait for what is ex-
pected, and to endure with fortitude wrongs or misfortunes; in short, it
beareth, hopeth and believeth all things; for it understands and therefore
waits.

Kindness is active love. The Master spent much of his time while
upon this earth in doing acts of kindness, making people happy; and doing
good turns wherever he went. The Lord has likewise put into our power
the ability to make people about us happy, through being kind to family,
friends, neighbors, communities, states, and nations. Try to adopt pa-
tience and kindness in all your dealings with people, and see how abund-
antly love will develop in your own soul. It is not difficult to do; the act
is rewarded immediately, and the world needs love, O so much! — A.

Committee Work for November

Finance and Publications: — Three leading points for the committee:

(1) The improvement fund. This should be raised during November — ■
25c for each enrolled member for last year; ten life memberships in the
stake at $5 each.

(2) Improvement Era. Finish the canvass for the Era, giving every
family in the ward an opportunity to subscribe. Make an earnest business of
the canvass.

(3) The Hand Book. Place a copy of the Hand Book in the hands of
every president of an association.

Secretaries: — See that the stake and ward efficiency reports are properly
made up, sent to the stake secretary from the wards, and from the stake
secretary to the general secretary at headquarters — the latter no later than
the 10th of November. See that the first report is complete. If nothing
has been done in any ward, let it be so stated.

Membership and Organization: — Let the chairman see that all class
leaders are provided with members to the limit,, and that, having been en-
listed they are entertained and instructed in the classes. The chairman
should be as much interested in one class as in another, but particularly
in the Senior. Get the boys.

Junior Department: — There should be a Scout troop in good working
order, every member taking part also in class work during the allotted
time. The scout master should be class teacher also. The Manual lessons
must be given.

Special Activities: — Are arrangements made for the monthly doings for
November? It is a fitting and rousing entertainment for our fathers and
mothers.

Advanced Senior Department: — Have you a large joint class of inter-
ested members? If not, why?

The Senior Class Visits a Noted Scientist and Astronomer

Elder Jack Coburn, President of the Mutual Improvement Association
of the Auckland conference, Australia, writes under date of August 13 : "We
are taking the regular prescribed course, namely, Joseph Smith as Scientist,
and we are always on the lookout for things along scientific lines. Through
the courtesy of Elder F. W. Schwendeman, the mission secretary and our
class leader, an arrangement was made on the 10th inst., for the Senior
Mutual class to visit Mr. Clement Wragge, F. R. G. S., etc., who is a well-
known scientist and astronomer his headquarters being the Clement Wragge
Observatory and Institute at Birkenhead. It may be mentioned to show
that we received our lecture from a thoroughly competent man that Dr.
Wragge has held some very responsible positions. He is a gold medalist of
the Ben Levis Observatory, Scotland; director of the late government
central weather bureau, Brisbane Australia; honorary member of the North
Staffordshire Naturalists' Field Club; founder of the Wragge Museum,
Stafford, England; and honorary correspondent of the Institute Solar
International, of Monte Video, etc. Nineteen of us assembled at the Ferry

88 IMPROVEMENT ERA

building, in the evening, and embarked on the Ferry steamer for an up-
harbor trip of six miles to Birkenhead, on the beautiful and sparkling
waters of the harbor. On arrival we were met by Mr. Wragge, who con-
ducted us to the Observatory where his powerful telewcope was situated.
After the telescope was focused we observed the moon; and, on viewing the
northern portion, we could clearly see two large craters which were named
Aristotle and Udoxus, and a large sea bed named the Sea of Serenity, It
was explained that a sea had once existed on the moon but had evaporated
ages ago. On the southern portion were several craters, the principal one
being Clavius; next we saw Alpha Centauri, the next nearest sun to the
earth. This sun is at least six times as large in diameter as our sun. The
whole planetary system was explained. We then adjourned to the Ins-
titute and heard a scientific lecture by Mr. Wragge, who said that true
science and true religion are one; both inculcate, on scientific principles,
the doctrine of loyalty, duty, and love to all mankind. Mr. Wragge, it
may be stated knew President Brigham Young, as he had been entertained
by him in Salt Lake City. He had also been presented with a copy of
Joseph Smith as Scientist and was surprised at the scientific truths it
contained, and the fact that they had been put forward so long ago. Ether,
God's control of the universe, how the heavenly bodies are controlled, and
other items pertaining to the Manual were discussed. Most of the scientific
thoughts that he advanced were entirely in accordance with the teachings
of the Prophet Joseph Smith and were a testimony to us all. Elders present
from Zion were: F. W. Schwendeman, H. D. Hall, W. L. Castleton, A. M.
McFarland, G. C. Young, R. Layne, F. S. Merrill, and Sister Miriam Taylor.
"Upon returning from our little experience we felt a greater desire to
enter into our duties with more energy, knowing that we indeed had the
truth in our Church. The Mutual in our Conference is growing and pros-
pering, and all join in praying that the blessings of the Lord will be upon
all the like organizations in Zion, and upon the Era which we all look
forward to receiving through the mission office."

A Live Ward in Bingham Stake

We learn from Stake Secretary Sylvan Olsen, Idaho Falls, that the
Dehlin ward, of the Bingham stake, has made a splendid record, due largely
to the wonderful spirit shown by N. T. Winthers President of the ward
Y. M. M. I. A. The Stake Secretary forwarded $9.25 to cover the fund of
Dehlin for 1921-22, the first ward in the stake to pay the fund for this
season. Dehlin is a little farming district, back in the hills east of Idaho
Falls, and has a population of 131 persons. Last year it had an enrollment
in the Y. M. M. I. A. of 28 per cent of its ward membership, and 98 per
cent of the young men of mutual age. It had the highest percentage of Era
subscriptions of any of the wards in Bingham stake (10 per cent). It also
had an average attendance of 94 at their mutual meetings last season. We
congratulate the ward officers upon their achievement, and the stake of-
ficers upon having such a live organization.

Important for Junior (Scout) Class Leaders

It is a requirement of the General Board that, while a Scout organ-
ization is required in each ward in the Junior department, it is also de-
manded that the scout leader shall be a good Latter-day Saint and capable
of teaching the Junior manuaL as well as the scout work. The lessons
in the manual must not be neglected, and the spirit of the Church should
underlie every teaching given, both in the lessons and in the scout work.
Ethics are good, but religion is better.

Ninety4wo certificates were issued to Utah teachers by the state board
of education, October 5.

Major General Wood retired from the army service, October 5, to be-
come governor of the Philippines.

Invitations to attend the armament limitation conference in Washington,
Nov. 11, have been extended to Belgium, Holland and Portugal.

Last of the pioneers of July 24, 1847, Lorenzo Sobieski Young, now of
Shelley, Idaho, visited Salt Lake during the October conference.

Free transit for American coastwise vessels through the Panama canal
is provided for in the Borah bill passed by the U. S. Senata,, October 10.

The peace treaty with Germany was ratified by the German reichstag,
September 30 without debate. It was endorsed by the reichsrath October 7.

A new lighting system on State street, Salt Lake City, was inaugurated
October 5. It is estimated that 30,000 persons were on the streets when
Mayor Neslen turned on the lights.

President Obregon, of Mexico, returned to the Latter-day Saints Church
members the land that was confiscated during the revolutions, according to
a dispatch from El Paso, Texas, October 8.

Former king of Wuertemberg, William II., died at Stuttgart, October 2.
He was born February 25, 1848; ascended the throne October 6, 1891;
abdicated in 1918, as a result of the world war.

The forty-third annual state fair of Utah opened October 3, at the fair
grounds, Salt Lake City. Utah's manifold resources were well displayed. The
weather was ideal, and the attendance was very large.

Mexico's independence was celebrated September 16, in the City of
Mexico with parades and other festivities. It was the one hundredth anni-
versary of the proclamation of freedom from Spanish rule.

High prices are maintained through illegal combination between manu-
facturers and retailers, and not entirely by the demands of labor. That was
the charge made by Senator Wm. King, of Utah, in an address in the
Senate, October 3.

The oldest living Confederate soldier, Joseph Samuel Langford, cele-
brated the 102nd anniversary of his birth, at Petersburg, Va., October 5.
He has fifteen grandchildren and forty-five great grandchildren, and he
still goes about unaided.

Work for the unemployed is the present need, according to an official
appeal issued by President Harding, in which he urges governors and mayors
to form the organizations and take other steps recommended by the con-
ference on unemployment.

William Howard Taft, former president of the United States, and now
chief justice of the Supreme Court, took the oath of office, October 3

90 IMPROVEMENT ERA

when the court convened for the fall term. The oath was administered by
Justice Joseph McKenna.

Over a century old. That was the age of Mrs. Rachel McGee who
died September 19, at Anna, 111., in her 104th year, according to word re-
ceived by her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Sherwood, of Salt Lake City. Mro.
McGee was the mother of 16 children.

The cost of government of Salt Lake City for the year ending De-
cember 1, 1920, was $6,706,077, or $56.23 per capita. In 1917 the per
capita cost was only $32.90. The total revenue in 1920 was $5,107,082, or
over a million and a half less than the total expenditure.

Summer resort for girls. The Y. L. M. I. A. general board members
went to Brighton in Cottonwood canyon October 5, to inspect the beginnings
of the summer resort for girls being erected by the city stakes Y. L. M. I. A.,
organization. The logs of the building have been put in place on the
property leased from the government.

A new corporation of bankers of Salt Lake City, Ogdtn, and other Utah
and Idaho cities, has been formed under the name of the Bankers' Loan
Company, for the purpose of extending credit to farmers, stock raisers, etc.,
and thereby encouraging those industries. The company has a capital of
$1,000,000 and was ready to begin operations on October 6.

Revolution in Russia against the Bolshevist government was reported
in a dispatch from Warsaw to the London Daily Mail, published September
12. Bolshevik commisars were being constantly murdered, the dispatch de-
clared, and the soviet authorities were fighting the insurrection by all pos-
sible means there being a number of mass executions reported.

Lucius A. Snow, a son of the late President Lorenzo Snow, and his
wife, Harriet Squires Snow, died at his home, Brigham City, Utah, October
3. He was born in Salt Lake City December 11, 1849. He has lived in
Brigham City since 1853. He held several important offices in the Church,
at various times. At the time of his death he was a member of the high
council of Box Elder stake.

Orvil L. Thompson, president of Millard stake, died October 2, at his
home in Scipio, Millard Co., Utah, of heart trouble. Elder Thompson was
the bishop of Scipio ward before being made president of Millard stake.
When Millard stake was divided into the Millard and Deseret stakes, he
was first counselor to the presidency, and after the division was sustained
as president of Millard stake. He filled a mission to Great Britain about
thirty years ago and represented Millard county in the Utah legislature for
four successive terms.

Registration at the B. Y. University, Provo, September 12, showed an
increase of 206 per cent of the first day's registration in 1920. The students
represent most of the counties of the state and many parts of Idaho, Wy-
oming, Montana, Arizona, and New Mexico. There are also students from
Old Mexico and Canada. The opening exhibition of art in the art gallery
at the Brigham Young University is said to be a very fine collection of
masterpiece reproductions. Many of the world's greatest artists are repre-
sented by very excellent reproductions.

The death of Hans Andreas Pedersen, of Logan, a leading business man
of that city, occurred October 6. The cause was pneumonia. Mr. Peder-
sen was a native of Norway. He came to the United States when 18
years of age, and has been very prominent both in political and ecclesiastical
activities. At the time of his death he was a member of the presidency of
the Logan stake of the Church. In 1906-7 he was a member of the Utah

PASSING EVENTS 91

legislature, and for twelve years he was a judge of the juvenile court. He
was 59 years of age. He filled a mission to Norway in the early 90s.

A Buddhist priest, M. Arai, paid his compliments to President Heber
J. Grant, September 17, when passing through Salt Lake City, on his way
to Washington from Japan. M. Arai is the head of the Soto sect of Buddhists,
which is said to number between seven and eight million worshipers. The
gentleman was accompanied by about six attendants, all priests of the Soto
sect, on a tour of the United States for the purpose of studying American
customs and ideals. He had a appointment with President Harding, it was
said, to converse on Buddhism and exchange ideas on world peace and the
limitation of armament.

The Ninety-second semi-annual general conference of the Church con
vened in Salt Lake October 6, and adjourned the following Sunday.
The visitors were favored with clear, sunny weather, and the attendance
was very large. The duty of the Saints to practice thrift, keep out of debt,
and patronize home industries was dwelt upon by President Heber J.
Grant in his stirring opening address, as well as by Presidents Charles W.
Penrose, Anthony W. Ivins, and other speakers. A resolution was adopted
endorsing the aims of President Harding's international Pacific congress in
Washington, and setting apart Sunday, November 6, as a day of prayer
for the success of that gathering.

An International Court of Justice was elected September 14, by the
council and assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland. It
consists of eleven judges, viz.: John Bassett Moore, United States; Vis-
count Finlay, Great Britain; Dr. Y. Oda, Japan; Dr. Andre Weiss, France;
Commendatore D. Anzilotti, Italy; Dr. Ruy Barbosa, Brazil; Dr. B. T. C.
Loder, Holland; A. S. de Bustamente, Cuba; Judge Didrik Nyholm, Den-
mark; Dr. Max Huber, Switzerland, and Dr. Rafael Altamira Y. Crevea,
Spain. Mr. Moore has been professor of internatonal law and diplomacy at
Columbia university for twenty years and has had a varied public service,
involving international relations.

Iron ore in Utah will be made valuable to the state. A contract was
signed, September 27, with the Milner corporation, by which the Utah Steel
corporation is assured of a supply of as much as 10,000,000 tons of the finest
iron ore for use in the blast furnace and additional iron and steel manu-
facturing facilities the company plans to erect at its plant at Midvale. The
Miller corporation owns vast deposits of iron ore in southern Utah which
can be mined with steam shovel at a cost estimated not to exceed fifty
cents a ton. It is estimated that the production of 1,000,000 tons of steel
in the twelfth federal reserve district would mean the addition to the bank-
ing funds of the district of about $400,000,000 annually.

A national conference on unemployement was opened at Washington,
Seoptember 26, by President Harding. In his address to the delegates
the president declared that the industrial depression was "a war inheritance,"
adding that the results hoped for from the conference might extend beyond
the United States. Both the president and Secretary Hoover, chairman,
emphasized the need for an employment program which would not con-
template a drain on the national treasury. After the conference had been
organized adjournment was taken till October 5. The subcommittee on un-
employment statistics on September 29 reported that the number of unem-
ployed in the United States is not less than 3,700,000 and not more than
4,000,000, and that agricultural workers are not included in this estimate.

Reorganization of the presidency of the North Weber stake was effected
at the conference, September 11. Elder John V. Bluth was sustained as

92 IMPROVEMENT ERA

president of the stake, to succeed President James Wotherspoon. Francis
W. Stratford and Thomas M. Irvine, were sustained as his counselors. The
reorganization of the stake presidency was effected under the direction of
President Rudger Clawson, who together with Elder Melvin J. Ballard
were speakers at the conference sessions. David W. Evans was retained
as stake clerk. President Bluth has been first counselor to President
Wotherspoon since the stake was organized 13 years ago. President "Wother-
spoon was honorably released to take over the duties of secretary of the
European mission. He left for his new duties on September 20.

The world's altitude record was attained, September 28, by Lieutenant
John A. Macready, at McCook field, Dayton, Ohio, when he ascended to a
height of 40,800 feet in a biplane. The greatest height reached before this
was 38,180 feet, the record of Rudolph C. Schroeder, February 28, 1920.
Lieutenant Macready was in the air one hour and forty-seven minutes, re-
quiring all but a few minutes of the total flying time to reach his mark. At
39,000 feet ice formed on his oxygen tank. At 40,800 feet his engine died.
He then glided safely down. Macready suffered none of the hardships
met by the former chief test pilot. Schroeder's eyeballs froze, and excessive
dilation of the heart kept him in a hospital nearly two weeks. Macready,
on landing, suffered from numbness, but he climbed out of the plane un-
assisted.

The death of Professor James L. Brown, of the Brigham Young Uni-
versity, Provo, occurred at his home in that city, September 13, as a result
of an accident which happened to him on the 12th while getting on a hay-
rack. Professor Brown fell under the wagon as the horses started. The hind
wheel went over his chest, breaking five ribs on the left side and punc-
turing one lung. He was born in Pleasant Grove about 60 years ago, being
the son of Bishop John Brown, one of the earliest settlers in that commun-
ity. After graduating from the Brigham Young Academy in 1884 he was
a teacher and principal of the Pleasant Grove schools until 1892, when he
entered the University of Michigan. Graduating from that institution in
1896, he became a member of the B. Y. U. faculty with which he has been
connected ever since.

The Irish conference did not materialize as planned. It was to be held
at Inverness, September 20, but on September 15 Lloyd George, in a letter
to de Valera canceled the invitation, because the Sinn Fein delegates, in
accepting it, declared that they could meet the members of the British cab-
inet, only as the representatives of an independent, sovereign Ireland. After
de Valera had explained that the Irish representatives did not insist on the
acceptance by the British government of any conditions previous to the
conference, except a free discussion of the existing situation, Lloyd George,
September 29 issued another invitation to a conference, this time to be held
in London, October 11. The British premier reiterated the statements form-
erly made that separation of Ireland from the empire is not to be con-
sidered, but he says, the meeting is called "with a view to ascertaining how
the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the
British empire may be best reconciled with Irish national aspirations." De
Valera accepted the invitation, on September 30.

Earthquake shocks were reported, September 29, from Richfield, Elsi-
nore, and Monroe, Sevier Co., Utah, beginning at 7:15 a. m., and contin-
uing for half an hour. At Elsinore the property loss was estimated at more
than $100,000. Three residences and the new school house were wrecked.
At Richfield buildings on Main street were slightly damaged. At Monroe
several chimneys collapsed, and many residences were violently shaken.
Unusual disturbances were noticed southeast of Monroe. Clouds of dust

PASSING EVENTS 93

arose high above the mountains, and in Monroe canyon sections of cliffs
were shaken loose and could be seen tumbling down. The cliffs near the
thermal springs were sundered and great masses of rock were plunged to
the bottom. Earthquake shocks were also reported from Los Angeles,
Cal. An earthquake shock was reported from Richfield on September 12,
when windows rattled and doors creaked, but no damage was done. An-
other shock was felt at Elsinore on September 30, at 8 a. m., when several
buildings were wrecked, or damaged. The Theodore Christensen home was
badly wrecked. At Monroe the hot springs sent forth water that was
almost blood red. The cliffs on the south side of the canyon were shattered
and heavy boulders bounded down the steep sides.

Scenic wonders of Utah were enjoyed by President and Mrs. Heber
J. Grant who returned September 14, from a two weeks' trip to the southern
part of the state. The president was enthusiastic over the scenic wonders
he saw and declared that although he has visited Zion's canyon four times,
to him it looked better than ever on this trip. The view from Hurricane
hill overlooking the Pine Valley mountains, in variety of color and scene,
has not been equalled, in his opinion, in any of his travels about the
world and Bryce's canyon is absolutely unique, he declared, among world
wonders. President Grant and party accompanied Union Pacific railroad
officials on a tour to the rim of the Grand canyon and Utah scenic wonders.
While away the president's party attended many Church gatherings. Elder
George Albert Smith, who also made the trip, parted with the president's
party at Kanab, 5,oing on to St. George. President A. W. Ivins, with Mr.
and Mrs. Vincent Cardon of Cedar, and Miss Fulvia Ivins, left the main
party at Panguitch, going on to Cedar where Mr. Cardon has charge of the
branch Agricultural college, and also to St. George, where President Ivins
and Miss Ivins attended the conference. A most successful auxiliary
group convention was held at Kanab, according to President Grant, Septem-
ber 11, with the general boards of all auxiliaries of the Church represented
and the largest attendance in the history of the stake present. Sunday
night a special meeting was held, in addition to the convention at which
President Grant, President Ivins and Elder Smith were the speakers.

The Modern Star of Hope that leads to
health and happiness. Like the Star of Old that
led the wise men of the East unto the birth-
place of Him who promised life eternal, there
comes a new Star of Hope — The Tuberculosis
Christmas Seal — to lead mankind to the birth-
place of Knowledge, with its promise of life
temporal.

When the Star of Bethlehem made its ap-
pearance to the shepherds, nearly two thou-
sand years ago, a celestial choir sang, "Unto
Thee a Savior is Born."
When the modern Star of Promise appears, a mighty terrestrial choir
raises its voice in gladsome carol, "Unto Thee New Hope of Health is
Born."

The Christ to whom the Star of Old led the wise men, said unto them:
"Believe and follow Me and I will lead you unto life everlasting."

The Knowledge to which the new Star of Hope, the Christmas Seal,
will lead all wise men and women, says unto them: "Believe and follow
me and I will lead you along the paths of right living unto the haven of
perfect health."

This modern Star of Promise under the guidance of the Utah Public
Health Association will make its appearance in Utah on Thanksgiving day

94 IMPROVEMENT ERA

and will shine in first magnitude until Christmas Eve. In the measure that
it is received by the people of the state will it leave behind the knowledge
and good works that lead to health and happiness. — U. P. H. Association.

Changes in Ward and Stake Officers, September, 1921. — New Stake
Presidents. Uintah stake, Wallace Calder succeeded Don B. Colton, address
Vernal, Utah. Young stake, Elmer F. Taylor succeeded Hyrum M. Taylor,
First Counselor to stake president, address Kirtland, N. M. North Weber
stake, John V. Bluth succeeded James Wotherspoon, and Francis W. Strat-
ford appointed First Counselor. Oneida stake, Parley M. Condie, first coun-
selor to stake president, and Hyrum D. Jensen, second counselor. New
Wards and Bishops. Topence ward, Idaho stake, Benjamin D. Jensen
Bishop. Escalante south ward, Garfield stake, Milton Twitchell, Bishop,
address Escalante, Utah. New Bishops, etc. Escalante North ward, Gar-
field stake, Leslie George succeeded E. A. Griffin, address Escalante, Utah.
Castle Gate ward. Carbon stake, Benjamin F. Thomas succeeded Morgan
D. Evans, address same. Burnham ward, Young stake, Alma L. Foutz suc-
ceeded Elmer F. Taylor, address same. Alpine ward, St. Johns stake, John
Jepson succeeded Wiarren M. Tenney, address same. Burley stake, Unity
ward, W. E. Tinsley succeeded Archie L. Stokes, address same. Spring-
lake ward, Nebo stake, Herman Tweede succeeded Wm. J. Taylor, address
Spring Lake, Utah. Grouse Creek, Raft River stake, Wilford F. Richins suc-
ceeded Jos. S. Barlow, address same. Davisville ward, Idaho stake, Daniel
Balls, Bishop, succeeded Thos. K. Gunnell, address Soda Springs, Idaho.
Morgan ward, Morgan stake, C. Calvin Geary succeeded Alonzo Francis, ad-
dress Morgan City, Utah Lost River stake, Chilly branch, Joseph A. Coates
succeeded Charles John, address Chilly, Idaho. Second ward, Liberty
take, Albert J. Elggren ucceeded Henry B. Elder, address 745 South 5th
East, City.

George Lionel Fcrrell, 92 years of age, passed away in his home at Smith-
field, Cache Co., September 21. The deceased was for many years prom-
inent in church and political activities, and he was a successful pioneer in
the important work of dry farming. He was born at Howelsfield, Gloucester-
shire, England, February 16, 1829, the son of William and Alice Sadler
(Bird) Farrell. After the death of his father he brought his mother and
three sisters to Iowa, before he reached his majority, living there for a
number of years, and then coming to Utah in 1859. The Farrells settled
first at Farmington, where it is recorded that the young man took a con-
tract for getting out the winter's wood for Amasa M. Lyman. In 1860
Cache county was opened to settlement, and Mr. Farrell left Farmington and
went to Logan, where his energy and ability soon identified him with the
pioneer and growing community. He was tithing clerk of Cache stake from
1860 till 1880, county recorder of Cache county from 1860 till 1880, county
recorder of Cache county from 1860 till 1884, postmaster at Logan from
1862 till 1874, filled a mission to England, 1874-76, and was bishop of
Smithfield from 1888 till 1900. It was about 1872 that Mr. Farrell was led
to undertake his work in the development of dry-farming and, after years of
experimenting, he made a success of it. Mr. Farrell attended every dry-farm
congress since the organization of that body and was the author of numer-
ous pamphlets on various phases of the subject. Even after passing the age
of 90. Mr. Farrell remained in good health save for failing eyesight, his
sons and daughters declaring that, so far as they can remember, he was
never sick a day in his life. When the summons came it was without
pain; just a gradual fading out of the flame. So peaceful was the end that
those who stood by his bed,, where he slept saw no sign of struggle; they
saw only that the breathing had ceased.

U. A. C. Winter Quarter

Opens Monday, November 28

Several hundred courses of vocational and collegiate grade
will be open for registration. Send for descriptive cir-
cular.

You can secure thorough training in any one of the fol-
lowing important fields:

AGRICULTURE — Practical farmer; stock raiser; animal hus-
bandman; poultry husbandman; dairy farmer; manager of
creamery; range manager; soils expert; crops expert; crops
pests inspector; teacher; orchardist; county agent; extension
specialist; agricultural chemist; bacteriologist; expert in farm
management; landscape gardener; botanist; entomologist;
veterinarian (first two years, only).

HOME ECONOMICS — Home demonstrator; extension specialist;
teacher; dietician; rural health expera; nurse; home manager;
dressmaker; milliner; social worker; institutional manager.

ENGINEERING! — Agricultural engineer; draftsman; surveyor;
drainage expert; irrigation engineer; rural achitect; expert in
rural sanitation ; expert in road construction.

MECHANIC ARTS— Contractor; automobile mechanic; tractor
operator; teacher; gas engine expert; cabinet maker; carpen-
ter; iron worker; foundry man; expert machinist; draftsman.

BUSINESS — Banker; expert in marketing; advertising expert;
salesman; manager of cooperative institutions; business admin-
istrator; private secretary; office manager; typist; stenog-
rapher; expert in agricultural economics; economist; expert
in political science; teacher.

GENERAL SCIENCE — Teacher; artist; musician; librarian;
writer; expert in chemistry; botany; bacteriology; geology;
zoology; entomology; mathematics; foreign languages; eng-
lish; history; political science; public speaking; physiology.

Logan is well provided with excellent accommodations
for students. Rates are reasonable.

The Utah Agricultural College

The Home of Efficient Education
LOGAN, UTAH

Wanted: Number 7, volume 21, May number Improvement Era.

Number 11, volume 22, September number, Improvement Era.
Send to 406 Church Office Building, and payment will be sent you.

Improvement Era, November, 1921

Two Dollars per Annum

Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter

Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of

October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 1918

Address Room 406 Church Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah

Heber J. Grant, ) p ,. Edward H. Anderson, Business Mgr.

Edward H. Anderson, J" Editors Moroni Snow, Assistant

CONTENTS

The Meeting of the Waters _ Frontispiece

After the Storm. A Poem Alfred Lamboume _... 1

The "Mormons" and the Unted States Flag B. H. Roberts _ _ _... 3

The Psychology of Repentance Prof. Enoch Jorgensen. „ 7

The Conquest of the Land of War _J. M. Sjodahl _ 8

The Fair Day. A Poem.. Minnie Iverson Hodapp .. 10

The Principle of Vision Prof. Perry G. Holden .,.11

My Little Son. A Poem - A. C. A. Dean Hewer 19

Women and the Priesthood Prest. Rudger Clawson...„ 20

Our Sunset Hills. A Poem Carrie Tanner 22

The Thanksgiving of Annie Adams. A Story Elizabeth Cannon Porter 23

Bits of Philosophy Nephi Jensen _ 26

Relation of Scientific Irrigation to Permanency

of Civilization George Dewey Clyde _.27

"Up Against It." A Poem Stella Jaques Penman , ...32

The Surprise Genuine. A Story Rulon P. Bennion 33

The Gleaners. A Poem Erma Pace *. ., _ 42

A Suspicion Allayed. A Story Wendell Hammond _.43

Sources of Joy and Factors of Happiness — VII-IX.. Dr. George H. Brimhall „.49

Achievement. A Poem _ Helen Kimball Orgill _.57

Conversion and Testimony of the Late Prest. C.

N. Lund _ C. N. Lund, Jr _ * 58

Wilt Thou Me Guide? A Poem Carrie Tanner .60

Lest We Forget ....: Dr. Seymour B. Young * 61

Pride Goeth Before a Fall 63

Loyalty to Our President Joseph S. Peery „.64

It is up to You. Dr. Thomas L. Martin 65

The Reward, Though Unseen, is Sure George Henry Norman 66

Latter-day Saints Church in Minnesota. Illus Andrew Jenson + 68

Cigarettes and Opium _ _ _ _ 69

Disarmament and Peace „ James H. Anderson _ _.70

If I Can. A Poem Lawrence J. Sorenson 73

The Utah Anti-Tobacco Law of 1921 Fred L. W. Bennett 74

Editors' Table — The October Conference 77

The 113th Anniversary of Prest. John Taylor 78

"The Palestine Weekly" 80

Praying so that you May be Heard 81

An Error Corrected 82

Messages from the Missions 82

Priesthood Quorums' Table 86

Mutual Work „ 87

Passing Events _ 89

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Let us help you grow in wisdom and the enjoy-
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that every man should know and read.

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DIRECTORS

GEO. T OOELL
W. 8 McCORNICK
JAMES H. MOYLE

/ILLIAM SPRY
HEBER SCOWCROFT
MALCOLM A. KEYSEB
OAVIO A. SMITH

G G. WRIGHT
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THOMAS R CUTLER
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W. W. ARMSTRONG
R. P. MORRIS
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